We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Grove Surgery on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about The Grove Surgery, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Grove Surgery on 20 October 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
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. Examples included: Collaboration with an adult social care provider to provide dementia specialist care and step down beds in the area; Driving up quality by collaborating with seven other GP practices in a federation.
A GP partner was the lead clinician on the local ‘My Health, My Way’ projectaiming to equip people with a long-term health condition with the skills and information that will help them to manage their condition and make informed choices about the support they require. Patients were able to access a range of support to suit them, including one-to-one coaching, telephone support, group work, on-line tools and structured support work.Patients experienced flexible services that aimed to provide choice and continuity of care. Self health management was promoted through a partnership with the patient aimed at helping them plan and achieve quality of life goals. Patients were enabled to be self directive of the timing of appointments, which was supported by proactive triage and management of their needs.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. Feedback from all 45 patients was strongly positive confirming 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. 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.
Integrated health and social care is strongly advocated and the practice has driven innovation in the integration of community services in Christchurch.Examples included:engagement with the community to discuss and agree health and social care priorities for Christchurch.Educating citizens in the community about early identification of malnutrition and what to do to seek help for vulnerable people.Leading the development of a hub approach with a federation of seven other GP practices to provide onsite and co-located secondary health and social care services.Patients benefitted from these initiatives by being better informed, only attending the practice when absolutely necessary and having access to a wider range of services and appointments across the Hub.
We saw one area of outstanding practice:
The practice had set up a pilot with local schools in the last 12 months providing responsive GP assessment service, whereby a child/young person was guaranteed a same day appointment to determine their fitness to attend school. Early data indicated that school absence rates had improved by 90% as a result of this pilot. In addition the practice had established a joint volunteer initiative, in which the practice helped train volunteers to support patient families with a child/young person with mental health needs. Families who could be vulnerable and isolated benefitted from the befriending support from volunteers.
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
Safety net systems needed further development and should include the setting up of system to ensure that all urgent referrals to secondary services are successfully received.
Review audit processes to ensure multiple cycle audits are undertaken to measure service improvement.
Chief Inspector of General Practice