Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Park Medical Practice on 16 December 2014. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

Specifically, the practice was rated as good for providing safe services and outstanding for providing effective, caring, and responsive services and for being well led. In addition, it was rated as outstanding for providing services to the six population groups.

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

• Patients expressed a high level of satisfaction about all aspects of the care and services they received. They described the staff as friendly, helpful and caring and said that they were treated with dignity and respect.
• The practice was accessible and well equipped to meet patients’ needs.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment when they needed it. They described their experience of making an appointment as good, with urgent appointments usually available the same day.
• There was a holistic and proactive approach to meeting patients’ needs.
• Systems were in place to keep patients safe and to protect them from harm. Lessons were learnt and improvements were made when things went wrong.
• The practice had strong links with other providers to aid communication and multidisciplinary working, to meet patient’s needs.
• The practice used innovative and proactive ways to improve outcomes for patients, working with other providers to share best practice.
• The practice actively sought feedback from patients in a variety of ways, which was acted on. The practice had an active Patient Participation Group (PPG) who worked in partnership with the practice to improve the services for patients.
• Staff were actively supported to continually develop their knowledge and skills to ensure the delivery of high quality care. The practice had a highly motivated and committed staff team with extensive experience and skills, to enable them to deliver well-led services. High standards were promoted and owned by all staff.
• The culture and leadership empowered staff to carry out lead roles and innovative ways of working to meet patients’ needs, and drive continuous improvements. The management and governance of the practice assured the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice held the Quality Practice Award from the Royal College of General Practitioners, which is the highest award attainable from the College. The accreditation process supports practices to deliver the highest quality of care to their patients.

• High importance was placed on patient empowerment, education and self-management of their health needs, with a focus on long-term conditions. Patients with diabetes received a copy of their review form and test results prior to attending reviews to enable them to prepare for this. They also received a written summary of their reviews, which helped them to self-manage their condition. They were also asked to share their experiences in staff meetings and patient groups as ‘patient’ experts.

• The practice was proactive in reaching out to patients who were reluctant to attend the surgery. This included men. The practice ran a male health and well being campaign, which encouraged men to see a GP or nurse about any health issues or advice on lifestyle changes. This resulted in an additional 286 men attending the practice between June to August 2014 compared to the same period for the previous year.

• There were high levels of engagement with patients and the patient participation group (PPG) to improve the services. The PPG was actively involved in the planning and delivery of services. The practice and the PPG held two health awareness events for all its patient population, involving various external organisations. A further event was planned in 2015.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice