Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sunniside Practice on 10 March 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good. The practice is rated outstanding for caring services and good for providing safe, effective, responsive and well-led services.

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.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• Outcomes for patients who use services were good.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.

• Staff were consistent and proactive in supporting patients to live healthier lives through a targeted approach to health promotion. Information was provided to patients to help them understand the care and treatment available

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. The proportion of patients who described their overall experience of the GP surgery as good or very good in the GP National Survey was 100%, compared to the national average of 85%. Several patients we spoke with commented on the helpfulness of the staff and caring manner of the GPs and said it was the best practice they had ever been registered at.

• The practice had a system in place for handling complaints and concerns and responded quickly to any complaints.

• The practice had good access arrangements, patients said they were able to get an appointment with a GP when they needed one, with urgent appointments available the same day.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• There was a clear leadership structure in place and staff felt supported by management. The practice sought feedback from staff and patients, which they acted on.

• Staff throughout the practice worked well together as a team.

We saw four areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had excellent results from the GP National Patient Survey in January 2016.

  The practice were ranked as one of the top five from this survey by a North East in a newspaper article. They did well in all categories and were ranked 34 out of 7708 practices nationally.

• The practice went the extra mile to ensure that patients received person centered care. They could give us several examples of how they had a low threshold for raising safeguarding concerns for vulnerable children and adults. They also had a strong supportive culture for their patients, for example, when patients failed to attend review appointments, the GP would sent a personal letter setting out the risks to their health and how it was inadvisable to continue in that way. These letters would often be hand delivered.

• The practice shared a frailty nurse with four other practices. The funding was made available from the CCG for this service. There was a scoring and referral system for the nurse to visit patients. This had led to improvements for patients needs for example the nurse had been instrumental in a patient being able to have a wet room installed in their home.

• The practice had a good appointment system. They believed this had led to patients rarely using the local walk in centre service. Their patients had only accounted for 0.3% of all appointments (the highest practice in the area was 25%) in the last quarter of 2015.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Record the numbers of the pre-printed prescription stock which had been distributed in the practice in accordance with national NHS Protect guidance.

• Take steps to ensure staff complete all training appropriate to their role including information governance training.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice