Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hucknall Road Medical Centre on 20 September 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 and near misses, and we saw evidence that learning was applied.

• The practice had effective safeguarding procedures in place, with the safeguarding lead having protected time to review all patients on their safeguarding registers. There was active involvement of other healthcare professionals and agencies to mitigate risks and safeguard children.

• GPs showed a caring approach to patient care. Full health checks, including blood tests and chest x-rays, were provided to patients identified as asylum seekers when they first joined the practice.

• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes. This included developing information packs for patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, referrals to education courses and joint working with the local diabetes specialist nurse to improve the wellbeing of patients.

• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive. Data from the national GP survey showed 98% of patients surveyed said they had confidence and trust in the last GP they saw or spoke to.

• There was evidence of planned and co-ordinated patient care with the wider multi-disciplinary team to plan and deliver effective and responsive care to keep vulnerable patients safe.
• The practice actively reviewed complaints to see if there were any recurrent themes, and identified issues where learning could be applied to improve patient experiences in the future.
• A range of extended opening hours were offered every morning from Monday to Friday and for four hours on Saturday mornings for the convenience of working patients. These included GP and nurse appointments.
• The practice was awarded the ‘You’re Welcome’ status for meeting the criteria for young people friendly health services.
• The practice had a clear vision which had improving health and wellbeing as its top priority. There was strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership with effective governance arrangements.
• Staff told us that they were well-supported and felt valued by the management.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice:

• One of the GPs organised two evening meetings at one of the care homes to provide families with the opportunity to meet the doctor and nurses with a representative from Age UK in attendance. This was an unpaid initiative outside of their normal working hours and it resulted in ongoing improved involvement of relatives in the care of patients and aided advance care planning. There was positive feedback from staff and patients’ relatives which was shared with the CCG in order for them to consider including the visits as part of the paid local enhanced service for care homes.

An area where the provider should make improvements is:

• The provider should take steps to identify more carers registered with them in order to support them where appropriate.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice