At the last inspection in December 2014 we rated the provider as Good overall and in the safe, effective, caring responsive and well led domains. All population groups were rated as good.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Wellspring Surgery on 11 December 2018 as part of our inspection programme. Following the inspection in December 2018 we have rated the practice as Good overall. All population groups were rated as good.

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 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 found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• 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.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Staff treated patients with kindness, respect and compassion. Feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treated people.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Complete the implementation of arrangements for secure storage and management of blank prescription stationery.
• Review arrangements for clinical correspondence received to ensure timely allocation to relevant clinicians, particularly when staff were absent or had left.
• Continue to pursue improvements to raise rates of child immunisation; and cancer performance indicators including cervical cancer screening for eligible women.
• Continue to make improvements to the patient survey results about general practice appointments and the healthcare professional being good or very good at listening to patients.

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 Wellspring Surgery on 2 December 2014. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services for the care of older patients, patients with long term conditions, the working aged patients including the recently retired and students, mothers, babies and young patients, patients whose circumstances make them vulnerable and patients experiencing poor mental health including patients with a diagnosis of dementia.

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

• There were systems in place to monitor safety including safeguarding children and the protection of vulnerable adults.

• The practice was effective in meeting the needs of the practice population ensuring staff were skilled to undertake the duties required of them.

• Patients were treated with kindness and respect. The identified cultural needs of the practice population were met.

• The practice offered extended appointments to meet the needs of patients.

• There were good governance arrangements and the practice sought the views of patients about the service.

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

The provider should:

• Ensure all actions taken in response to significant events are recorded so there is a clear audit trail that includes learning, following the event.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We visited The Wellspring Surgery on 9 September 2013 and spent the day at the surgery. We spent time with the buisness manager, the registered manager, the operations manager, a practice nurse, reception staff and patients. All of the patients we met spoke positively about the treatment and support they had been given.

Patients told us that the clinical staff took time to discuss and explain their care and treatment. All the patients we spoke with told us that staff were professional and knowledgeable about them and their health condition.

Staff had received training in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. They were aware of the appropriate agencies to refer safeguarding concerns to that ensured patients were protected from risks of abuse.

We talked with patients about their confidence in the skills and knowledge of staff and asked them their view of staff competency. People told us that all the staff they had met seemed competent, skilled and knowledgeable.

The provider had systems in place for monitoring the quality of service provision. There was an established system for regularly obtaining opinions from patients about the standards of the services they received. This meant that on-going improvements could be made by the practice staff.