Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Family Medical Centre on 1 March 2016. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

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. Learning was shared widely across all staffing groups.
• 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.
• The practice used clinical audit to drive quality improvement within the practice
• Feedback from patients about their care and treatment was positive.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they met patients’ needs. For example the practice had close working relationships with homeless services within the city and provided outreach clinics on a weekly basis.
• 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. For example, the practice had worked with a local young people’s group to review their services and had developed an action plan as a result of their recommendations.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The practice actively reviewed complaints and how they were managed and responded to, and made improvements as a result. All staff were involved in reviewing complaints to identify learning.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.
• The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.
• The practice was proactive in working with other local providers. For example, the practice had recently been awarded research hub status and was being supported by a number a local practice to lead on research.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice was committed to working with people whose circumstances might make them vulnerable. For example; the practice had a long history of working with homeless patients across Nottingham. In addition to removing barriers for these patients to access services at the practice, they undertook outreach clinics in local hostels on a weekly basis. Weekly substance misuse clinics were run from the practice.
• Staff had received training in domestic violence awareness and had dedicated domestic violence champions. The practice worked closely with local services providing support to people who had suffered domestic violence.
• There was a high level of engagement with younger people. For example, the practice had dedicated leaflets for younger people explaining the service they provided at the practice and detailing other services which were available in the local area including sexual health services. In order to ensure they were accessible to younger people the practice had worked with a local young people’s organisation, Future Pulse, to review their services. The practice had received positive feedback following the review and had developed an action plan in response to the recommendations for improvement.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice