Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Dr Smith and Partners on 18 November 2014. We found that the practice were rated as good overall.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice was safe, staff reported incidents and learning took place. The practice had enough staff to deliver the service.

• The practice was effective. Services were delivered using evidence based practice.

• The premises were clean and fit for purpose and equipment was available for staff to undertake their duties.

• Staff were caring and compassionate, treated patients with kindness and respect and we saw good examples of care.

• The practice was responsive to the needs of patients and took into account any comments, concerns or complaints to improve the practice.

• The practice was well led, with an accessible and visible management team, governance systems and processes are in place and there was performance and quality management information available.

We saw some outstanding practice including :

A sexual health clinic was offered on a Wednesday evening and a Saturday morning. It had been set up as an initiative by the two female GP’s at the practice. It was later joined by one of the male GPs and all three of the nursing staff were also incorporated into the service. It offered patients the facility to see gender specific clinicians and was now available to the whole community and not just patients of the practice.

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

• Not all staff were clear who held the lead roles for safeguarding and infection control.

• Clinical audit was undertaken only when necessary and was not pro-active.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating November 2014 – Good)

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sullivan Way Surgery on 15 November 2018 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they could access care when they needed it.
• Patient feedback on the care and treatment delivered by all staff was consistently positive.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• A confidential sexual health clinic was offered for the whole community and not just patients of the practice for the screening and treatment of all sexually transmitted infections. The practice had received an excellence in primary care award from the clinical commissioning group for this piece of work.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take action to consistently monitor the practice global inbox to ensure letters and test results, (whilst it was recognised these had been actioned and recorded on the patient records), were annotated as filed on the system.
• Review the processes for repeat prescribing, and the system for reviewing uncollected prescriptions.
• Review and monitor the system in place to follow up on patients who had failed to attend for an appointment including children.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice