Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Townhill Surgery on 24 August 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good. The full comprehensive report on the August 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Townhill Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 29 March 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements, in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 24 August 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is rated as Good.
Our key findings were as follows:
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Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks were conducted on all new clinical members of staff, prior to starting employment.
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Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks were conducted on all existing members of staff, irrespective of their role.
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The practice had placed posters in the waiting area, in an effort to identify carers or patients with caring responsibilities.
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The practice had designed and produced a carers form, to identify carers or patients with caring responsibilities during their registration process.
At our previous inspection on 24 August 2016, we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services as Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks were not carried out on staff who were acting as chaperones.
In addition, we also found that the practice needed to develop an appropriate way of identifying carers, in order to offer more support.
At this inspection we found that Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks had been carried out on all members of staff, and the practice had taken steps to identify carers or patients with caring responsibilities. Consequently, the practice is now rated as good for providing safe services.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice