Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Garforth Medical Practice on 15 December 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care for all of the population groups it serves.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system was in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour. (Duty of Candour means health care professionals have a legal duty to be open and honest with patients when something goes wrong with their treatment or care which causes, or has the potential to, cause harm.) 
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in care and decisions about their treatment.
• Urgent appointments were available on the same day as requested.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat and meet the needs of patients.
• The practice sought patient views how improvements could be made to the service, through the use of patient surveys, the NHS Friends and Family Test and the patient participation group.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff were supported by management.
• The ethos of the practice was to provide quality patient centred care.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice:

• All vaccines had labels on which identified the date they had arrived in the practice, for audit purposes. We were informed this was common practice across all three locations and was undertaken by the nursing staff. This also supported stock rotation and prevention of waste.

• The practice worked with a local further education college to ensure students who registered with the practice were given a ‘new starter’ pack, which contained information about the practice, contact details, what services were available and relevant health advice.

• The practice took a positive approach to staff development, for example nursing staff were given two to four hours of development time each week. This time was protected for individual professional learning and development. Staff told us how they appreciated this time and felt valued by the practice.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Garforth Medical Practice on 19 April 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.