Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at East Parade Surgery on 1 February 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• 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.
• The practice worked closely with the nearby homeless centre to ensure residents were registered at the practice and had easy access to appointments.
• 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practices where the practice had worked with secondary care to improve care protocols and the care of patients with leg ulcers and reduce the number of referrals. The practice used a significant number of templates for a range of conditions and shared these templates for care, with other practices in the CCG area to help improve the consistency and appropriateness of care.

The area where the provider should improve is to:

• Ensure staff have up to date skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice