Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fallodon Way Medical Centre on 26 March 2015. Overall the practice is rated as Good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be well led and good for providing safe, effective, caring responsive services.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice. For example, it had appointed a care coordinator to monitor the needs of older people.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
• 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 good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand
• 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.
• All GPs and the care coordinator were involved in a daily meeting when the patients who had requested visits were discussed and the best person to conduct the visit was identified in order to provide continuity of care.
• The practice provided a service to a women’s refuge and ensured staff understood the implications of confidentiality for patients with a PO Box address.

We saw an area of outstanding practice including:

• There were express clinics on two mornings each week with a GP. This meant patients could book and attend within 48 hours.

The provider should:

• Carry out fire drills on a regular basis so that staff know how to respond in the event of fire.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection March 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fallodon Way on the 24 May 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The practice had employed a care coordinator who acted as a communication link, keeping in contact with patients and seeking support from the necessary clinicians or other services to assist. Feedback from patients about this service was very good with patients expressing their appreciation about receiving contact especially following their discharge from hospital when they were feeling vulnerable.
• The care coordinator set up a ‘tea and talk’ group for isolated patients and coordinated a volunteer driver service to assist patients to the practice and to secondary care appointments.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the process of exception reporting for the quality outcome framework.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice