We undertook a comprehensive inspection of the University Medical Centre on 28 January 2015. We have rated the practice overall as outstanding.

Specifically, we found the practice to be outstanding for providing responsive service and for being well led. It was also outstanding for providing services for the people with long-term conditions, for working age people (including those recently retired and students), for people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and for people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). It was good for providing caring, effective and safe services.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice was responsive to the needs of the local population and engaged effectively with other services.
• There was a culture of openness, transparency, continual learning and improvement within the practice.
• The practice was committed to providing high quality patient care and provided good support and training to staff to facilitate this.
• 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.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
• 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 (PPG).
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. A business plan was in place, was monitored and regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had a clear vision, a strong learning culture and was committed to continued quality improvement. This culture was embodied by all of the staff. Staff responded to change and were encouraged to bring suggestions for improvement. All staff were united to deliver the practice vision, of providing high quality care to patients.

• The practice promoted work with young people and schools as part of “You’re welcome initiative”. This included engaging students by offering work experience opportunities at the practice. The practice nurse had written a book on immunisations and used this to educate young children. The practice had engaged with students on a work experience basis, and had asked them to review the services they offered to teenagers and young patients.
• Innovative approaches were evident to enable patients in vulnerable groups to access care services. For example, the practice held weekly diabetes clinics using the ‘House of Care’ model, in line with best practice. The practice hosted a Diabetic Eye screening clinic specifically for the residential care home patients with diabetes. The practice had arranged for a psychiatrist to hold regular clinics onsite to enable easy access to students, and audits showed this had positive impact on patients.