Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Rowcroft Medical Centre on 28 April 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.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had appointed a practice nurse lead to co ordinate and lead on the care and treatment for the care of patients with learning disabilities, dementia and the vulnerable elderly. Annual reviews were offered to all patients with learning disabilities, either at the practice or within the patient’s home. Home visits had resulted in improved outcomes for patients.

• Patients recently diagnosed with dementia received a joint home visit by both the practice nurse lead and the practices care coordinator. This enabled a comprehensive assessment of the patient within the home environment. Liaison with, for example, community teams and social services resulted in a coordinated care package being initiated. This also led to good relationship building and gave the families confidence to contact a named person for advice. The practice had installed a dedicated direct telephone line with answer service, for ease of access for these patients, carers and families.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• The practice should improve the identification of patients who are also carers.

• The practice should improve collaborative and effective working with the patient participation group.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We met with four patients.They told us they had a good service when they telephoned for an appointment and were given a slot at a convenient time. Patients accepted that there were occassions where they may be late being seen by the doctor. One patient told us about an occasion when the doctor they saw was “very thorough”. Another patient told us they the practice had “always been excellent” and they “never had any problems”. They said that the receptionists were polite and the nurses were excellent.They told us they could see a doctor of their preference.

Patients were referred to other healthcare services when required and the provider maintained detailed consultation notes in order to ensure patients received appropriate care and treatment that met their needs.

Staff had received training in safeguarding and were able to describe the possible signs that abuse was occurring

Audits were carried out and there were systems in place to assess and monitor the quality of the service.

We reviewed the information available to us about Rowcroft Medical Centre on 11 June 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.