Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Trinity Surgery on 21 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said there were urgent appointments available on the same day and continuity of appointments, however some patients told us they did not always find it easy to make an appointment with a named GP.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice worked closely with three other practices in Wisbech to provide a community eye service, Anglia Community Eye Services (ACES). This initial concept was developed by four Wisbech practices and provided the services of consultant ophthalmologists out of hospital into the community. In addition the practices joined to provide out of hospital DEXA scan provision for the community.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are;

• Ensure patients waiting for their appointments in all areas of the practice can be clearly seen by staff to ensure patients whose health might deteriorate can be observed.
• Ensure that medical consumables are in date.
• Ensure records of all clinical meetings are maintained and shared with staff to ensure learning outcomes.
• Establish an effective process for monitoring requests and the collection of repeat prescriptions for vulnerable and high risk patients.
• Continue to monitor clinical exception reporting process within the practice to ensure reviews of patient health and medication are undertaken where appropriate.
• Continue to monitor patient feedback and implement changes to practice when required.
• Continue to encourage and improve the uptake of bowel and breast screening for patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice