Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Drs Jackson, Chapman, Hodson & Speed on 25 February 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.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• 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 areas outstanding practice:

• The practice fully funded a vehicle and employed a driver to transport patients, to appointments at the practice or local hospital and deliver urgent medicines to patients. The driver had received training in first aid and basic life support and visited, to check all was well, for older patients who were housebound and frail that had not been seen by the practice for several weeks.
• The practice had worked with other local practices, on a forward weekend planning initiative. If GPs had concerns regarding deterioration of a patients health over the weekend when the practice was closed, appointments could be made for them at the local hospital with the Bath emergency medical service for their health to be reviewed. Analysis by the practice showed that this initiative had prevented approximately 40 hospital admissions over a 12 month period.

The areas where the provider should improvements are:

• Curtains around examination couches should be installed to maintain dignity and privacy of patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

We reviewed the information available to us about Widcombe Surgery on 27 April 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.