Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lisson Grove Health Centre on 27 January 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.
• 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.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients’ needs. For example the practice worked closely with young mothers some of whom acted as ‘Patient health champions’ who supported other patients through education, signposting and peer support. They supported and promoted workshops run by a local charity and staff told us they were a vital link between the practice and local communities. The Charity trained 10 patients from the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) local community as Patient Champions. Empowerment and engagement sessions took place twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, and approximately 500 local people and patients had benefitted from these sessions.

• There are innovative approaches to providing integrated person-centred care. For example, the practice provided a Substance Misuse reduction counselling service and worked closely with North West London drug and alcohol team, who provided a specialist in-house service which was integrated with the practice team.

• The practice had set up a GP-led community alcohol de-toxification service which was the only one in Westminster. The service was run by a GP, clinical nurse specialist and a counsellor who assessed and supported alcoholics through detox and offered aftercare with group and individual counselling.We saw that up to April 2015 of the 115 patient who started a community detox programme, 111 completed and 56% of them were still abstinent after six months.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Ensure patients with caring responsibilities are proactively identified.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice