Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Rocky Lane Medical Centre on 29 October 2014 and at this time the practice was rated as good. However, breaches of legal requirements were also found. After the comprehensive inspection the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet the following legal requirements set out in the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) 2008:

• Regulation 21 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010, which corresponds to Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014;

During the inspection there were a number of areas that required improvement also and we identified that the provider should:

• Ensure annual electrical tests are completed for all electrical equipment in use.

• Ensure doctors have available emergency drugs for use in a patient’s home.

• Have available the use of equipment such as pulse oximeters, defibrillators and oxygen for emergency treatments in line with current external guidance and national standards.

On the 23 April 2016 we carried out a focused desk top review of this service under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The review was carried out to check whether the provider had completed the improvements identified during the comprehensive inspection carried out in October 2014. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Rocky Lane Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

The findings of this review were as follows:

• The practice had addressed all of the issues identified during the previous inspection.

• Improved systems had been put into place to ensure that staff were not allowed to undertake a chaperoning role without the necessary checks having been received.

• Arrangements were put into place to ensure that GPs had access to emergency drugs for use in the patient’s home and these were in regular review.

• The practice had equipment available to respond appropriately to a sudden deterioration in a patient’s health and a medical emergency situation. However the practice continues to operate without an automated defibrillator for emergency purposes.

There remain areas where the provider should make improvements as follows:

• The provider should ensure that an automated patient defibrillator is available for use in an emergency situation, in line with current best practice guidelines.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report of findings from our inspection of Rocky Lane Medical Centre. The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide primary care services. We undertook a planned, comprehensive inspection on 29 October 2014 and we spoke with patients, relatives, staff and the practice management team.

The practice was rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and met their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents, risks and near misses. Lessons were learned and communicated widely to support improvement. There were enough staff to keep people safe. However improvements were required to ensure staff were safely recruited and required information was held in relation to staff.
• Patient’s needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation. Staff received training appropriate to their roles and further training needs have been identified and planned.
• Many patients told us they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and that they were involved in care and treatment decisions.
• The practice reviewed the needs of their local population. Patients reported good access to the practice.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. There were systems in place to monitor and improve quality and identify risk.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider must:

• The provider must ensure that all staff with chaperoning responsibilities have had a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check completed.

The provider should:

• Ensure annual electrical tests are completed for all electrical equipment in use.
• Ensure doctors have available emergency drugs for use in a patient’s home.
• Have available the use of equipment such as pulse oximeters, defibrillators and oxygen for emergency treatments or a risk assessment in place supporting their decision not to have this.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice