Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Ilex View Medical Practice on 12 and 20 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• The practice actively worked with East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group to identify vulnerable patient groups and introduce additional clinical care, such as the Rossendale long term conditions nurse, the advanced nurse practitioner team for local care homes and a paediatric community nursing team pilot.
• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based 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 they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Practice staff were passionate about their local community and proud to share details of a range of fund raising activities they had taken part in recently.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• 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.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• 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 provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

There was one area of outstanding practice:

The practice was proactive at working with the local Clinical Commissioning Group to identify specific patient groups where additional care or services were required and helping introduce them. Specific service improvements included:

• Designing a “Common Childhood Illnesses” booklet which had been rolled out throughout East Lancashire and supporting the development of the community paediatric team.
• Helping set up and oversee a local long-term conditions team.
• The practice had conducted a frailty project, working with the University of Central Lancashire to identify elderly patients who were frail and assess them against nationally recognised criteria and identify appropriate clinical or social care needs.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Review the process for acting on safety alerts to ensure there is an audit trail of actions taken.
• Follow up on reference requests to ensure recruitment checks are completed for all staff.
• Review the complaints procedure and keep records of verbal communication as well as formal written complaints responses.
• Fulfil employer responsibilities relating to health and safety (including working with building management) to:

  • Review the process for portable appliance testing (PAT) to ensure all equipment is tested in line with the schedule.
  • Ensure actions required in the building fire risk assessment are carried out.
  • Complete actions identified in the risk assessment carried out by the Medical Defence Union and review local health and safety policy to include risk assessments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice