Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
When we visited Dr Samy Morcos (which is also known as The White Practice) on 15 November 2016, to carry out a comprehensive inspection, we rated them as good overall. However, we found breaches in the regulations relating to employment of staff and rated the practice as required improvement for the provision of safe services. We said that they must:
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Ensure the staff records required by regulation are in place and maintained on record.
We also said they should;
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Keep their national patient survey results under review and take action as appropriate. This included reviewing the low response levels related to involvement in decisions about care.
This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 24 August 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 at our previous inspection. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements. This report should be read in conjunction with the full report of our inspection on 15 November 2016, which can be found on our website at
www.cqc.org.uk
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We found the practice had not done enough to meet the regulation previously breached and the practice continues to be rated as requires improvement for the provision of safe services. Overall the practice continues to be rated as good.
Our key findings were as follows:
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The practice had not ensured that the staff records required by regulation were in place and maintained on record. Specifically,
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Not all the references for staff were in writing and included the referee’s name, job title and a landline number as recommended by best practice guidance.
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The practice did not have adequate process in place to assure themselves that nurses employed at the practice continued to be on the professional nurse register.
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We found there were some on-going issues regarding the safety of the building. For example, there was no evidence the actions recommended by a specialist contractor in December 2016 in relation to the risks posed by asbestos had been completed.
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We saw evidence that the practice had been reviewing their results from the national GP patient survey.
The latest survey results published in July 2017 showed that 79% of patients said the last GP they saw was good at involving them in decisions about their care compared to the local average of 83% and national average of 82%. This was a 13% improvement from the previous year’s results.
We identified regulations that were not being met and the provider must:
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Ensure the staff records required by regulation are in place and maintained on record.
In addition the provider should:
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Continue to take action to ensure the actions recommended by an external specialist in relation to asbestos are completed.
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Ensure they adequately record actions taken to report building maintenance issues to the landlord.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice