Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the Nutwood Medical Practice on 11 August 2015. Overall, the practice is rated as outstanding.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and report incidents and near misses.

• Feedback from patients was continually positive about the way that staff treated people. Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. Arrangements had been made which promoted and supported patients to become active partners in their care.

• Outcomes for patients who use services were consistently very good. Nationally reported Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data, for 2013/14, showed the practice had performed very well in obtaining 98.3% of the total points available to them for providing recommended care and treatment to patients.

• Risks to patients and staff were assessed and well managed.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and responsibilities.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• All staff were actively engaged in activities to monitor and improve quality and outcomes;

• Staff were consistent in supporting patients to live healthier lives through a targeted and proactive approach to health promotion.

• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.

• Information was provided to patients to help them understand the care available to them.

• The practice had made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback received from patients. This included demonstrating good responsiveness to patient feedback about telephone access to the practice.

• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management team. Good governance arrangements were in place.

• Staff had a clear vision for the development of the practice and were committed to providing their patients with good quality care.

  We also saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice nurse had completed an audit to enable them to evaluate patients’ satisfaction with, and understanding of, the Year of Care model staff used to provide their annual diabetes consultations and reviews. Patient responses showed a high level of satisfaction, with 100% (23) indicating that they were ‘very confident’ or ‘sometimes confident’ about managing their own health.

• Staff demonstrated a strong commitment to developing innovative ways of delivering care, treatment and support to older patients and those with long-term conditions. For example, they had supported AGE UK to obtain the funding the charity needed to develop a new ‘Care Navigator’ role. Staff also helped to pilot a new ‘Case Manager’ role before it was rolled out to other local practices. Staff had organised for a local Age UK Village Agent and a local solicitor to run free advice and support sessions in the health centre.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Nutwood Medical Practice on 21 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.