Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

Dear Dr Ballin

Silverdale Medical Practice was inspected on the 9 October 2014. This was a comprehensive inspection.

We rated Silverdale Medical Practice as good in relation to being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and report incidents and near misses. Lessons were learned and communicated widely to support improvement. A system was in place for managing Infection prevention and control.
• Staff were observed to be respectful, pleasant and helpful with patients and each other during our inspection visit. All patient appointments were conducted in the privacy of individual consultation room. Examination couches were provided with privacy curtains for use during physical and intimate examination and a chaperone service was provided.
• The main concern reported was the difficulty patients experienced getting through to the practice by telephone in the mornings. The 2013/2014 practice patient survey (published on the practice website)reflected that 22.41% of respondents rated the ability to get through to the practice on the telephone as ‘poor’. The senior members of the practice team were very aware of the issue, shared their patients concerns and were proactively seeking to resolve the issue in conjunction with the practice patient participation group (PPG).

In addition the provider should:

Improve records relating to significant events analysis by providing details of how the actions taken were monitored over time to ensure they were embedded and effective.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection September 2014 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Silverdale Medical Practice on 25 May 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice worked with the ‘Bridging the Gap’ social prescribing service. The service took referrals for patients who needed extra help which was not necessarily medical. It varied from advice on benefits to social issues such as loneliness and not knowing which services were available and how they could be accessed. The practice was able to demonstrate how this service had positive outcomes for patients. For example, 28 patients had a reduced Body Mass Index (BMI) and 143 patients had improved their self-reported wellbeing score by at least 10%.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice