Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection July 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Woodside Health Centre on 01/11/2017 as part of our 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 it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients mainly 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 practice understands their patient group and worked as a practice team to improve patients’ cooperation with their care and treatment.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice had equipment that tested the C-reactive protein (CRP) in a patient’s blood at the point of consultation. This was used when infection was clinically suspected. Measuring the CRP in a patient’s blood in this way helped to differentiate between viral infections and more serious bacterial infections needing antibiotic prescribing.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure information about how to make a complaint is easily available.
• Consider foramilsing the records of its fire drills.
• Ensure that all patients providing care to others are recorded as carers.                                          

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Woodside Health Centre on 9 July 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 for providing services for older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including those with dementia).

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice team were aware of the health needs and challenges of the local population and were responsive in providing services to meet those needs and challenges.
• Access to appointments and continuity of care were positive features.
• The practice was and clean and well equipped.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Most patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should:

• Review the emergency medicines held for the treatment of seizures to ensure that they are age appropriate.
• Improve methods of communication with both local residential care settings and the community matron to promote partnership working to benefit care and treatment to patients.
• Improve learning and reflection from complaints to reduce the trend in complaints received at the practice where patients feel they have been spoken to with uncomfortable challenge.
• Explore the reasons for, and respond to, negative feedback via NHS choices.
• Share learning from complaints and significant events with all staff to promote a learning culture through all levels of staff.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice