Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

St James Medical Practice serves a population of approximately 5000 patients.

We carried out a comprehensive inspection at St James Medical Practice on 27 January 2015.

We found that the practice provided a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led service for the population it served. The overall rating was good and this was because the practice staff demonstrated enthusiasm and worked together in providing good standards of care for patients.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Practice staff worked together as a team to ensure co-ordinated patient care.

• The practice was visibly clean. The standards of hygiene were regularly monitored to protect patients from unnecessary infections.

• There was a register of all vulnerable patients who were reviewed regularly. Patients we spoke with told us they were satisfied with the care they received and their medicines were regularly reviewed.

• The practice was able to demonstrate a good track record for safety. Effective systems were in place for reporting safety incidents. Untoward incidents were investigated and where possible improvements made to prevent similar occurrences.

• We found that patients were treated with respect and their privacy was maintained. Patients informed us they were very satisfied with the care they received but some reported their inability to book an appointment when they felt they needed to.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

In addition the provider should:

• Review the appointments system to enable patients to book appointments when they need them.
• Develop protocols for auditing the medicines GP’s carried in their bags to ensure they were safe for administration when visiting patients in their homes.
• Engage with patients by carrying out annual surveys to gather feedback on the quality of the service provided and respond to them in order to make improvements.
• Implement a system of regular checks regarding nurse’s registration with their respective professional body to ensure they were practicing legally.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice