Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Oswald Road Medical Centre on 24 February 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services that meet the needs of the population it served.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients who used the service were kept safe and protected from avoidable harm. The building was well maintained and clean.

• All the patients we spoke with were positive about the care and treatment they received. The CQC comment cards and results of patient surveys showed that patients were consistently pleased with the service they received.

• There was good collaborative working between the practice and other health and social care agencies that ensured patients received the best outcomes. Clinical decisions followed best practice guidelines.

• The practice met with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to discuss service performance and improvement issues.

• There were good governance and risk management measures in place. The leadership team were visible and staff we spoke with said they found them very approachable.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure monitoring checks for health and safety and the environment are documented.

• Review the appraisal process to ensure that documented records are available in staff files.

• Implement a process to record informal concerns to identify any patterns or trends that might be emerging and actions to prevent recurrence.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice