Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sheppey NHS Healthcare Centre on 10 January 2017. 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 a system for reporting and recording significant events.

• There were systems, processes and practice to help keep patients safe.

• Risks to patients were assessed and managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• There was evidence of clinical audits driving quality improvement.
• 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.
• The practice had a website and patients were able to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view their records online.
• 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.
• 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 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 gathered feedback from patients through the patient participation group (PPG), complaints received, patient surveys and by carrying out analysis of the results from the GP patient survey and the Friends and Family Test.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw the following area of outstanding practice:

• The practice employed a wide range of staff with specific skills to compliment those of GPs and nurses working at the practice and enhance the services available to patients. For example, a prescribing pharmacist, a non-prescribing pharmacist, an acute care practitioner (paramedic) and a community psychiatric nurse.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are;

• Consider expediting the replacement of waiting room chairs with those that are covered in materials which are easy to clean.

• Revise systems to help ensure all clinical equipment is calibrated regularly in accordance with manufacturers’ guidance.

• Continue to implement and monitor the results of plans to improve patient satisfaction scores.

• Continue to identify patients who are also carers to help ensure they are offered appropriate support.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice