Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Stoke Surgery on 2nd June 2015 as part of our comprehensive inspection programme.

We have rated the practice overall as providing a good service. Specifically we found the practice to be good for providing responsive, safe, effective, caring and well led services. It was also found to be providing good services across all the patient population groups.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.

• There were arrangements in place to respond to the protection of children and vulnerable adults and to respond to any significant events affecting patients’ well-being.

• The practice worked well with other health care services to enable a multi-disciplinary approach in meeting the health care needs of patients receiving a service from the practice.

• The practice managed complaints well and took them seriously. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.

• There was a clear management structure with approachable leadership. Staff were supported and had opportunities for developing their skills, were well supported and had good training opportunities.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Patients commented how helpful the staff were in trying really hard to get them a convenient appointment. This was reflected in the data from the national GP survey, 99% of 125 patients who responded reported a good overall experience of getting an appointment at a convenient time (the national average is 94%).

• The practice had a vision and informal set of values which were understood by staff. There were clear clinical governance systems and a clear leadership structure in place.

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

The provider should:

• Develop a web site to keep patients up to date and informed.
• Continue to try and develop a Patient Participation Group to encourage patient involvement and ensure the patient’s voice is heard.
• Ensure all administration staff have an up to date appraisal.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice