We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Gillies and Overbridge Medical Partnership on 20 and 21 March 2019 as part of our inspection programme. This was the first inspection of this provider. 

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 the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services

We found that:

• When things went wrong, reviews and investigations were not always sufficiently thorough. Improvements were not always identified.
• The practice’s process for acting on Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency alerts did not ensure patient safety.
• Processes to ensure that all clinical staff had the necessary permissions to administer medicines were not embedded.

We have rated the practice as requires improvement for providing responsive services.

We found that:

• People found it difficult to use the appointment system to access services by telephone.
• When people raised complaints or concerns, the practice did not always identify a way to improve their services.

This affected all population groups, so we have rated them as requires improvement even though there were areas of good practice.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing well led services.

We found that:

• The arrangements for governance and performance management were not always operated effectively.
• Risks, issues and poor performance were not always dealt with appropriately. The risk management approach was applied inconsistently.
• Improvements were not always identified, and action was not always taken.
• The practice had organised team building events for clinical and non-clinical staff.

We rated the practice as good for providing effective and caring services.

We found that:

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment were delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

The areas where the provider

must

make improvements are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider

should

make improvements are:

• Continue to identify patients who are carers.
• Develop an action plan to address patient feedback.
• Continue to improve cervical smear uptake.
• Improve the monitoring of patients on high risk medicines.

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

Rosie Benneyworth Chief Inspector of PMS and Integrated Care