Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Wordsley Green Health Centre on 10 January 2017. 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.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. However, we saw that the practice had not obtained references for a GP who was previously a registrar at the practice and had only one reference for a non-clinical member of staff.
• 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. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns raised with the practice.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment and that the last time they got an appointment it was convenient. We saw that urgent appointments were available the same day. Data showed that 94% of patients found the receptionists at the surgery helpful.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. All staff received annual basic life support training and there were emergency medicines available in the treatment room. We were told that staff took part in regular ‘skill drills’ which were mock emergencies that staff responded to.
• 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 that information and orientation packs were available for locums and GP registrars. Locum workloads were reviewed before the practitioner left the practice and they would sign to confirm they had completed all tasks, including referrals.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• We saw that safeguarding was a priority for the practice and the systems and processes for keeping people safe were comprehensive and embedded within the team. For example, the GPs reviewed the notes of all newly registered children within 24 hours of their registration. This had identified safeguarding issues which were acted upon. We saw evidence that when patients at the practice were struggling with health or social care issues the practice would ‘think family’ and review how other members of the family were also affected. The practice also held six weekly safeguarding meetings with a number of relevant professionals and held a log of all safeguarding issues which were regularly reviewed.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• The partners should formalise the process for supporting salaried GPs and ensure that they are offered regular, documented appraisals.

• The practice should continue to attempt to obtain two references for each newly recruited member of staff in line with the practice policy.

• The practice should implement an effective system to monitor and manage prescriptions which are not collected from reception by patients who have requested them.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice