Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this service on 21 November 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme. The practice also has a branch surgery at Wychbold which we did not inspect on this occasion.

The overall rating for this service is good. We found the practice to be good in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains. We found the practice provided good care to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, the working age population and those recently retired, people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients were kept safe because there were arrangements in place for staff to report and learn from incidents that occurred. The practice had a system for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events over time.

• There were systems in place to keep patients safe from the risk and spread of infection.

• Evidence we reviewed demonstrated that patients were satisfied with how they were treated and that this was with compassion, dignity and respect. It also demonstrated that the GPs were good at listening to patients and gave them enough time.

• The practice had an open culture that was effective and encouraged staff to share their views through staff meetings and significant event meetings.

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

The practice should:

• Ensure all GPs complete infection control training including regular updates as required.
• Ensure that all GPs can be assured that referral letters contain accurate information prior to correspondence being sent to consultants.
• Ensure clinical meetings are formalised and minutes kept, particularly when guidelines are updated to ensure that the whole clinical team are aware of current best practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice