Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Highfield Surgery Partnership on 15 July 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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 in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• The practice received patient safety alerts and acted appropriately. However, they did not keep records of patient safety alerts for any possible temporary members of staff such as locum doctors.
• 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 arrangements for managing medicines, including emergency medicines and vaccines, in the practice kept patients safe. Medicines in GP bags were appropriate and in date although there was no formal process to check these on a regular basis.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.

• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day. The practice had introduced an acute care service to manage up to 200 patient requests for urgent care each day.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There were protocols relevant to infection control in place and staff had received up to date training. We noted that there was no overall infection control policy that referenced these protocols or provided details of the infection control lead.
• 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 had experienced difficulties in involving all staff in meetings and had addressed this by introducing a weekly communication flier which was circulated to all staff.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had arranged training for one member of administrative staff in the testing of electrical equipment and purchased electrical testing equipment. This staff member was then able to check all practice electrical equipment on a rolling programme.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Ensure that patient safety alerts are retained by the practice for reference by temporary staff such as locum GPs.
• Put a formal process in place to check the medicines carried in GP bags to ensure that they are all in date.
• Introduce overarching infection prevention and control policy for the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice