Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Leigh View Medical Practice on 12 October 2016. 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:

• The practice complied with the requirements of the duty of candour. (The duty of candour is a set of specific legal requirements that providers of services must follow when things go wrong with care and treatment.)
• There was an open and transparent approach to safety. All staff were encouraged and supported to record any incidents using an electronic reporting system. There was evidence of good investigation, learning and sharing mechanisms in place.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• There were safeguarding systems in place to protect patients and staff from abuse.
• There was a clear leadership structure; staff were aware of their roles and responsibilities and told us the GPs and practice manager were accessible and supportive. There was evidence of an all-inclusive team approach to providing services and care for patients.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following local and national care pathways and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice staff had a good understanding of the needs of their practice population and were flexible in their service delivery to meet patient demands; such as providing additional GP appointments. As well as attending the practice for an appointment, patients could also had access to telephone consultations when required.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment. There was continuity of care and if urgent care was needed patients were seen on the same day as requested.
• Information regarding the services provided by the practice and how to make a complaint was readily available for patients.
• The practice sought patient views about how improvements could be made to the service, through the use of patient surveys, the NHS Friends and Family Test and engagement with patients.
• The practice sought patient views about how improvements could be made to the service, through the use of text messages. After an appointment with the GP or Nurse the patient was sent a short text message asking to rate the service they had just received. This provided effective feedback on the clinicians, this feedback was anonymised and shared with the clinician.

• An informal incident reporting process had been introduced to encourage staff to report every occasion of spotting anything going wrong. These forms called “ Oops Something has gone a bit wrong” were ways of flagging up patterns. To counter balance the potential negatives of identifying problems, the practice had also introduced a similar form called “What about if”” to encourage staff to share their ideas for improvements to the practice. These forms effectively encouraged ‘Incident Reporting’ and involvement of the whole practice team in improving the service.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice