Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Spring View Medical Centre on 4 December 2014. This was a comprehensive inspection. This means we reviewed the provider in relation to the five key questions leading to a rating on each on a four point rating scale. We assessed all six of the population groups and the inspection took place at the same time as we inspected a number of practices in the area overseen by Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The overall rating for Spring View Medical Centre was good.

Our key findings were as follows:

•           Systems were in place for ensuring the practice was regularly cleaned. We found the practice to be clean at the time of our visit. A system was in place for managing Infection prevention and control.

•           The practice had systems in place to ensure best practice was followed. This is to ensure that people’s care, treatment and support achieves good outcomes and is based on the best available evidence.

•           Information we received from patients reflected that practice staff interacted with them in a positive and empathetic way. They told us that they were treated with respect, always in a polite manner and as an individual.

•           Patients spoke positively in respect of accessing services at the practice. A system was in place for patients who required urgent appointments to be seen the same day, and extended hours appointments were available daily. 

We found an area of outstanding practice. Extended hours appointments were available until 10pm on weekdays and 1pm during weekends and on bank holidays. Patients attended a nearby practice for these appointments, and the GP they saw had access to all their electronic medical records which were updated at the time of the appointment.

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

The provider should:

• Ensure staff knew the procedure to follow when carrying out chaperone duties.
• Ensure Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks were carried out for all appropriate staff, including those carrying out chaperone duties.
• Ensure staff training, including on-line training was effective.
• Consider having oxygen or a defibrillator available for use in an emergency and have a risk assessment in place if it was decided not to have these items.

      

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice