Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Gloucester Road Medical Centre on 12 March 2015. Overall the practice is rated as GOOD.

We found the practice to be good for providing responsive, effective, safe, caring, well led services for older adults, families and children, patients with long term conditions, vulnerable patients, patients with mental health issues and patients who worked.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Overall 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.
• 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.
• The practice met nationally recognised quality standards for improving patient care and maintaining quality.
• The practice used a comprehensive, bespoke practice, management and information system for the recording, and monitoring of all the practice quality and monitoring processes.

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

The provider SHOULD:

• Ensure all staff undertake infection control updates in line with the practice policy.
• Ensure all sharps disposal boxes are correctly labelled and changed in line with national guidance.
• Ensure a record of medicines stocked in the practice is kept to demonstrate how they are being used.

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 inspection at Gloucester Road Medical Centre on 8 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.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice