Archived: Solway Health Services

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Solway Health Services on 21 July 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• The practice carried out clinical audit activity and were able to demonstrate improvements to patient care as a result of this. However, the practice did not have a planned, structured approach to identifying topics for clinical audit.
• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive. Patients reported that they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. However, patient feedback in relation to access was lower than the local clinical commissioning group and national averages.
• Urgent appointments were available on the day they were requested at the local primary care centre. Pre- bookable appointments were available within acceptable timescales.
• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, which were reviewed and updated regularly.
• The practice had proactively sought feedback from patients and had an active patient participation group. The practice implemented suggestions for improvement and made changes to the way they delivered services in response to feedback.
• The practice used the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) as one method of monitoring effectiveness and had achieved an overall result which was higher than local and national averages.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice had a clear vision in which quality and safety was prioritised. The strategy to deliver this vision was regularly discussed and reviewed with staff and stakeholders.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice nurse had attended a Dose Adjusted for Normal Eating (DAFNE) course. Although aimed at diabetic patients the nurse had attended this course so she was able to understand what diabetic patients were being taught and therefore be able to give them appropriate dietary advice.

However, there were some areas where the provider should make improvements:

• Maintain appropriate records of stock checks, including for controlled drugs and emergency equipment
• Review arrangements for the security of blank prescriptions
• Develop a significant event policy so staff unaware of the process have access to relevant guidance
• Ensure that the practice manager is given the opportunity of regular appraisal
• Review their process for selecting topics for clinical audit activity
• Continue to monitor demand for appointments and patient satisfaction and improve access
• Offer patients with a learning disability an annual health check

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice