Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good overall. Rated requires improvement for providing effective

services.

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Warren Practice on 5 December 2017. We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The new provider had not been inspected before and that was why we included them.

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 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. However, performance for some long-term conditions was low and exception reporting high. Uptake rates for cervical screening and childhood immunisations for two year olds was also low. The practice attributed these results to the highly transient patient population and could demonstrate how they exception reported patients. They had taken action to address these areas of low performance.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found accessing the service by telephone difficult and the practice had taken action to improve this.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to monitor and improve performance against national screening programmes and the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

• Review patient satisfaction with accessing the service by telephone.

• Advertise that a translation service is available to patients on request.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice