Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Westbourne Medical Group on 16 August 2016. Overall, the practice is rated as outstanding.

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

• 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.
• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice. They had also increased access to health advice for young people, including sexual health, by delivering a confidential clinic for young people outside normal school and work hours.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients’ needs. For example they worked with local support organisations for veterans and people with learning disabilities to help improve patient outcomes. The practice had high levels of commitment and invested time and resource to helping to improve the health of the local community.
• 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.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The practice actively reviewed complaints and how they are managed and responded to, and made improvements as a result.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced with stakeholders and was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.
• The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice; in particular, we found there was a strong focus within the practice on identifying and improving outcomes for patients who may otherwise be at risk of poor access to primary care or poor health outcomes. For example:

People with learning disabilities

• The practice had identified poorer outcomes were achieved for patients with learning disabilities across the Sunderland area and put an action plan in place to address this. As a result of action taken both the number of identified patients with learning disabilities and the number attending for an annual health check had shown a year on year improvement. The practice put a high value on enabling people with learning disabilities to gain life skills. The practice manager had volunteered their time and delivered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency first aid training to two groups of people with learning disabilities, through a local support organisation. The practice had supported young people with learning disabilities or autism to access short and long term work opportunities within the practice. The practice had been designated a safe place for vulnerable people, including people with learning disabilities.

Families, children and young people

• The practice had recently initiated, along with other practices in the locality, an ‘Eat well and let’s be fit’ scheme to tackle childhood obesity. The practice had produced packs which included helpful information, healthy eating sticker charts, lunch bag and water bottle. This initiative was at an early stage, but the practice planned to evaluate it in the future. The practice, along with a neighbouring practice, had worked with local schools and involved children and young people in the development of the pack. To help prevent unplanned pregnancy and to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted disease the practice held a confidential young person’s clinic every week in conjunction with another local practice.

Veterans of the armed forces 

• The practice had taken action to increase the identification of veterans locally, to ensure they had access to appropriate health and support.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice