Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Old Town Surgery on 12 July 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 been trained to provide them with 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. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and 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.
• The practice had organised and hosted six patient educational events. A consultant attended these events and covered topics such as women’s health, men’s health, diabetes, dementia and healthy lifestyle.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Old Town Surgery on 8 February 2019, as part of our inspection programme. The service was previously inspected on 16 July 2016, and rated Good overall.

Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based on a combination of what we found when we inspected, information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as good overall.

This means that:

• Patients had good outcomes because they received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Patients were supported, treated with dignity and respect and were involved as partners in their care.
• People’s needs were met by the way in which services were organised and delivered.
• The leadership, governance and culture of the practice promoted the delivery of high quality person-centred care.
• The practice had a well-engaged and active patient participation group (PPG) who made suggestions for improvements, and met regularly (monthly) with practice staff and other stakeholder organisations such as the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and Healthwatch. The practice and its PPG organised a twice-yearly series of presentations on health matters that attracted an average audience of 65 attendees. The presentations covered such topics as diabetes education, men's health, and breast cancer awareness. We saw documentary evidence that the events were positively evaluated.

We found areas where the provider should make improvements. The provider should:

• Continue to identify carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they require.
• Continue efforts to increase the programme coverage of women eligible to be screened for cervical cancer.
• Continue to engage patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and mental health problems, so that there is lower exception reporting and healthier outcomes for these indicators.
• Continue to undertake audits for antibiotics, so that patients' use of these items is safely monitored.

Details o

f our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.  

Professor Steve Field

CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice