Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Light Surgery on 19 January 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care for all of the population groups it serves.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system was in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat and meet the needs of patients.
• The practice sought patient views how improvements could be made to the service, through the use of patient surveys, the NHS Friends and Family Test and the patient participation group.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff were supported by management.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

We saw one area of practice where the practice should make improvements:

• Ensure that all clinical waste bags are securely tied and labelled to ensure no clinical waste spillage prior to collection from the appropriate authority.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. The practice was previously inspected in January 2016 when it was rated Good overall.

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 The Light on 15 February 2019. This inspection was planned and undertaken as part of our inspection programme and as part of a wider inspection of the provider (One Medicare Ltd). The provider had agreed to contribute to our Primary Care at Scale project.

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 provider produced a monthly lessons learned bulletin to share themes and learning from significant events and complaints across all locations.
• The practice offered a number of additional in-house services such as social prescribing, physiotherapy and a mental health support worker.
• 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.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice promoted healthy living and offered patients access to a health coach, gym facilities and provider led boot camps.

The area where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to review access and the appointment system to improve patient satisfaction.
• Continue to review and improve uptake of cancer screening programmes.
• Continue to review and improve exception reporting rates for people with a long-term condition.

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

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.