We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Vine Medical Centre on 26 April 2016. Overall and in all population groups, the practice was rated as outstanding.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Vine Medical Centre on 28 February 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, in all domains and population groups.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing well-led services because:

• The culture of the practice and the way it was led and managed drove the delivery and improvement of high-quality, person-centred care.
• Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose, striving to deliver and motivating staff to succeed. There was a strong culture of continuous improvement.

We also rated the practice as good for providing safe, effective, caring and responsive services because:

• The practice had clear systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse. All staff took a proactive approach to safeguarding, with a strong focus on prevention and early identification.
• Services were planned and delivered in a way that met the needs of the local population. The importance of flexibility, choice and continuity of care was reflected in the services provided.
• The continuing development of staff skills, competence and knowledge was recognised as integral to ensuring high-quality care. Staff were proactively supported to acquire new skills and share best practice.
• Clinical audits were continuously being carried out and all relevant staff were involved.
• 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 openness and transparency in how complaints were dealt with. Complaints and concerns were always taken seriously, responded to in a timely way and listened to. Improvements were made to the quality of care because of complaints and concerns.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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 Vine Medical Centre on 26 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

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 used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice. The practice had established systems to continuously monitor and access information from other stakeholders. For example, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS Foundation Trusts and support groups.

• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive.

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients’ needs. The practice continually sought initiatives such as local pilot schemes where their involvement might improve services offered to patients.

• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group. For example, identifying support and self-help groups and providing patients with access to these at the practice.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. The practice had a quiet room, as well as a designated breast feeding area.

• The practice actively reviewed complaints, how they were managed and responded to, and made improvements as a result.

• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced with stakeholders and was regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff.

• The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.

• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• There was a strong focus on safeguarding children and adults. There were extensive systems for reviewing safeguarding matters. These included; reviewing all safeguarding adult and children reports on a monthly basis and identifying trends that could indicate a safeguarding issue, as well as. reporting potential safeguarding issues to the patients named GP. Relevant information was retained and where necessary patients were added to the practice’s safeguarding register.

• The practice had conducted a review of their weight management programs. The review had identified that obesity was of high prevalence in male patients. As a result, one of the GP partners introduced the ‘35+ Club’. The club is a support group for mostly male patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 35 or more. The group consists of cycling sessions, held on alternate Saturdays.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice