Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Empingham Medical Centre on 15 September 2015. 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.
• This practice was not an outlier for any QOF (or other national) clinical targets. It achieved 99.3% of the total QOF target in 2014, which was 1.6% points above CCG Average and 5.8% above national average.

• 95% of people who responded to the July 2015 national patient survey said the GP was good at listening to them compared to the CCG average of 91% and national average of 89%.

• 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.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Patients said they did not find it easy to make an appointment with a named GP. Urgent appointments were available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• 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 had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. A business plan was in place, was monitored and regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had increased the flexibility of access to appointments and could demonstrate the impact of this by reduced use of the GP out of hour’s service and Accident and Emergency. The practice had very positive patient survey results for July 2015.
• The practice had a Carer’s Champion. This is a member of staff who supports carer’s and acts as a key contact for carer information for the GP practice where they work. They aim to improve the carer’s quality of life and help them to continue in their caring role. They can also help ensure that the carer’s voice is heard when the person they care for is having their needs assessed or met. Carer Champions will also help improve local services by feeding back what they learn from supporting carer’s.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should

• Have a system in place to ensure audit cycles have been completed.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Empingham Medical Centre on 11 June 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.