19 November 2014
During a routine inspection
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We inspected ELMS Primary Care Out of Hours (GUM site) on 19 November 2014. We carried out a comprehensive inspection of this service under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
We rated the service as Good.
Our key findings were as follows:
- Access to the service was effective.
- There was a clear management structure to support and guide staff.
- Patients told us they felt safe at the service and were treated with respect, dignity and compassion.
- The practice was well maintained and clean.
We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:
- The use of the Medical Intraoperability Gateway (MIG) electronic system to allow GPs at the service to access the front page of patients records held at their usual GP practice. This allowed GPs at the service to have read only access to patients allergies, medication and any recent tests carried out by their GP. This was only available once patients had given their consent.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
In addition the provider could:
- Improve signage within the hospital for the service
- Ensure appropriate access to emergency equipment.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice