Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Pelham Medical Group on 13 January 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services that meet the needs of the population it served.

We found the practice to be outstanding for the care of the population group older people.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients who use the service were kept safe and protected from avoidable harm. The building was well maintained and clean.

• All the patients we spoke with were positive about the care and treatment they received. The CQC comment cards and results of patient surveys showed that patients were consistently pleased with the service they received.

• There was good collaborative working between the practice and other health and social care agencies that ensured patients received the best outcomes. Clinical decisions followed best practice guidelines.

• The practice met with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to discuss service performance and improvement issues.

• There were good governance and risk management measures in place. The leadership team were visible and staff we spoke with said they found them very approachable.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice employed a community care co-ordinator whose role was to visit older housebound patients who had complex needs in their own homes. This was to ensure they had a care plan in place and were receiving care and treatment which would reduce the risk of unplanned admissions to hospital. Data showed that there had been a 32% reduction in unplanned admissions to hospital between October to December 2014 compared with October to December 2013.

• The practice provided a substance misuse service to vulnerable patients. The service was GP led and had the support of a drugs worker and family liaison worker. This enabled the service to support the families and children of patients who were substance misusers.

• The practice monitored all GP consultations to ensure all referrals to hospitals and other services had been completed.
• The practice had developed an innovative system to manage their asset register using an 'App' on an i pad. This enable staff to keep track of equipment and medicines ordered and when any maintenance was due or when medicines would expire.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice