Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Stockingford Medical Centre on 19 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Urgent same day patient appointments were available when needed. All patients we spoke with and those who completed comment cards before our inspection said they were always able to obtain same day appointments.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care delivered in line with current guidelines. Staff had the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand. Complaints were reviewed to ensure lessons were learned to minimise the risk of a recurrence.

• Patients told us they said they were treated with dignity, respect and compassion. Patients were involved decisions about their care and treatment.
• Patients said GPs gave them enough time.
• There were clearly defined processes and procedures to ensure patients were safe and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events. They were fully reviewed at every staff meeting.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

However there was an area where the provider should make improvement:

• A procedure should be in place to ensure that when patient safety alerts were discussed in practice meetings, a record of the discussion was made.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

On the day of our inspection we spoke with six patients, the practice manager, a healthcare assistant, a receptionist and an administrative assistant.

All patients we spoke with were satisfied with the appointment system and had been given an appointment that day. All patients told us they did not find it difficult to get through to the practice by telephone. One patient said: “The phone is usually answered very quickly.”

We saw that patients’ views and experiences were taken into account in the way the service was provided and that they were treated with dignity and respect. When patients received care or treatment they were asked for their consent and their wishes were listened to.

The practice is located in a modern single storey building. It is fully accessible for patients with disabilities. There were disabled parking bays close to the entrance in the car park. The surgery is also fitted with a hearing aid loop. One patient said: “This is by far the best practice I’ve ever been to.”

We found the practice to be clean and well organised. Processes were in place to minimise the risk of infection. There were also processes in place for monitoring the quality of service provision. There was an established system for regularly obtaining opinions from patients about the standard of the service they received.