Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive

inspection at Wilcodoc (also known as Salisbury Walk-In Centre) on 21 March

2017. The service provides an out of hours service. Overall the service 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 recording, reporting and learning

  from significant events.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well

  managed.

• Patients’ care needs were assessed and

  delivered in a timely way according to need.

• 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.

• There

  was a system in place that enabled staff access to patient records, and the out

  of hours staff provided other services, for example the local GP and hospital,

  with information following contact with patients as was appropriate.

• 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.

• The service worked proactively with other

  organisations and providers to develop services that supported alternatives to

  hospital admission where appropriate and improved the patient experience.

• The service 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 service

  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 service:

• The service worked closely with local GP

  practices and the clinical commissioning group to review the needs of its local

  population and to secure improvements to services where these were identified. We

  saw numerous examples of innovative service developments that had been proposed

  and implemented by the service to support local needs. For example, in response

  to an increase in the number of children attending the local accident and

  emergency unit with a minor illness and an increase in non-elective admissions,

  the service had worked with local GP practices and the local clinical

  commissioning group (CCG) to develop a specialist out-of-hours paediatric

  service that had reduced hospital attendance and admissions by this group of

  patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are: 

• Review the need to assess the clinical needs of patients who may have to

  wait more than 30 minutes to be seen.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice