We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Garth Surgery on 23 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.

We found that:

• The practice needed to make improvements to some systems that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Improve the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

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

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Garth Surgery on 21 April 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and for being well led. It was also good for providing services for older people and people with long term conditions.

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.

• The practice offered a variety of pre-booked appointments, walk-in clinics and extended opening hours.

• 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.

• The practice safely and effectively provided services for all patient groups. The staff were caring and ensured all treatments being provided followed best practice guidance. The practice was well-led and responsive to patients’ needs.

• The practice had systems and processes in place to ensure they provided a safe service.

• The practice had an effective governance system in place, was well organised and actively sought to learn from performance data, complaints, incidents and feedback.

• The practice actively sought the opinions of staff and patients, working with a well-established patient participation group (PPG).

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had increased the flexibility of access to appointments and could demonstrate the impact of this by being part of the Prime Ministers Challenge Fund for seven day working extended at Redcar Primary Care Hospital.

• The practice had designed and implemented a patient triage system; Prioritisation of Patients Guide to Urgency for Non Clinicians (POPGUN). This enabled patients to be accurately signposted to direct care they needed in a safe, effective and efficient way.
• Part time counsellors were employed by the practice to enable patients to have direct access to enhanced mental health support services.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice