Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at East Cliff Medical Practice on 25 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Significant events were discussed by working groups comprising a staff member from each department that is a GP, a nurse, a receptionist and an administrator. The whole range of practice staff were involved in identifying safe solutions.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• The practice’s uptake for the cervical screening programme was excellent. It had bettered the national performance each year over the last nine years by between 11% and 20%.

• 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that 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 practice had significantly lowered prescribing costs, by as much as 12% compared with some other practices in the clinical commissioning group (CCG), through the development of a local formulary (a list of medicines which have been approved for prescribing).

We saw several areas of outstanding practice namely:

• The practice had piloted a scheme which provides two beds in a local care home to support practice patients and help avoid hospital admissions. The learning from this was shared with others and the CCG now commissions beds in a number of homes for other practices.

• There was a drop in clinic for mothers and babies each week

• The practice is the holder of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Quality Practice Award. To obtain the award, which is highest attainable from the college, the practice submitted a portfolio of evidence and was subject to an assessment visit. The award is for a five year period and the practice has held the award for the last 15 years.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice