Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Grange Farm Medical Centre on 20 July 2016. Overall the practice is rated as Good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events and near misses, and we saw evidence that learning was applied.

• There was easy access to appointments for patients with a range of appointments on offer, including a daily morning drop in clinic with an advanced nurse practitioner and telephone consultations, reducing waiting times for patients. This was evident from the above average patient satisfaction results from the national survey.

• The practice responded to the needs of their patients by offering services which were no longer commissioned locally, such as a non-fee paying toe nail cutting service for the elderly in need of foot care.

• The practice supported patients to live healthier by offering a weekly Lifechangers Class, a weight management and healthy eating clinic. Feedback from patients indicated they had achieved positive outcomes from the class.

• The practice planned and co-ordinated patient care with the wider multi-disciplinary team to deliver effective and responsive care to keep vulnerable patients safe.
• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group (PPG).
• The practice actively reviewed complaints to see if there were any recurrent themes, and identified issues where learning could be applied to improve patient experiences in the future.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision was documented and reviewed by the management on a regular basis and staff told us that they were well-supported and felt valued by the partners.

We also found some outstanding features as follows:

• The practice is rated Outstanding for caring. There was evidence of a caring approach to patients through offering various support groups for patients and carers on site, such as the support group for relatives of patients with Alzheimer’s and the Admiral Nurses clinics.

• The practice was awarded the ‘You’re Welcome’ status for meeting the criteria for young people friendly health services. Teenage patients were actively encouraged to use online services to book their own appointments to ensure they were involved in their healthcare.

However, the areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider enhancing the security arrangements for signed uncollected prescriptions out of hours, and arrangements for regular monitoring of patients who have not collected them.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice