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his practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating Feb 2015 – 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 carried out an announced comprehensive at Walker Medical Group on 13 November 2018. This was as part of our ongoing inspection programme.

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 they provided. They ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• The practice planned for and supported patients receiving end of life care, with well-established and embedded processes.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The area where the provider should make improvements is:

• Review the process for checking staff suitability for their role, by implementing disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks based on the roles and responsibilities of the job and not the individual staff member employed. Where a DBS check is not required, there should be a clear rationale set out in an appropriate risk assessment.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive announced inspection at Walker Medical Group on 12 February 2015. Overall, the practice is rated as good. Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services. It was also good at providing services for five of the six key population groups we looked at during the inspection. We found the practice to be outstanding for providing responsive services to families, children and young people.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, reviewed and addressed;
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed;
• The practice was clean and hygienic, and good infection control arrangements were in place;
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance;
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment;
• Information about the services provided by the practice was available and easy to understand, as was information about how to raise a complaint;
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs;
• There was a clear leadership structure and the practice had good governance arrangements. The practice actively sought feedback from patients.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice is recognised by the Royal College of General Practitioners as a youth friendly practice. To achieve this, the practice had to demonstrate that they had developed services for younger patients by, for example, improving access and encouraging young patients to be actively involved in their care. The practice safeguarding lead had visited a local school and spoke with young people about confidentiality and how they could access the practice.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice