Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Earle Road Medical Centre on 19 April 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.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

There were areas of outstanding practice as follows:

• The practice is based in a deprived area of Liverpool with a substantial bBME) patient profile. The practice team including the trainee doctors have been working hard to improve access for this population group, particularly in areas where there was poor uptake such as access to cervical screening and children’s immunisations. The practice was aware that some members of these communities were unaware of services available at the GP practice. To improve access they set up links with a local community centre and Liverpool CCG to provide health promotion and education sessions within the centre for females from the BME communities. Education workshops were held in the centre run by the practice team focusing on women’s health and well being covering topics such as childhood immunisation, women’s health, heart disease, cervical smears and diabetes. The practice advised that this work had

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

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• The practice should provide written information in different languages to meet the profile of the patient population

• The provider should ensure that information is held for locum GPs including documentary evidence of their professional registrations, fitness to practice and records of their completed training.

• The provider should ensure full and completed minutes are kept for all multi disciplinary meetings taking place.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Earle Road Medical Centre on 23 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.