Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Chawton ark Surgery on 5 February 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people, people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health. It required improvement for providing safe services.
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. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
- Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of those relating to some equipment, fire safety and legionella.
- Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
- Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
- The practice is a training practice and has up to four trainee GPs at any one time
- Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
- Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- Clinical audit was limited there were not any completed audit cycle. We were told that the lack of completing audit cycles had been identified by the GPs as an issue which was being addressed
- 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.
However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Action the provider MUST take to improve:
- Ensure that fire safety and legionella risk assessments are completed as needed.
- Ensure action is taken when the medicines/vaccinations fridges record an unsafe temperature range.
- Ensure equipment used to administer emergency care and treatment is within use by dates for sterile items.
- Risk assess the emergency medicines storage protocol.
- Risk assess the requirement for criminal record checks for staff who act as chaperones.
Action the provider SHOULD take to improve:
- Bring infection control training up to date for relevant staff.
- Implement a system to ensure full completion of clinical audit cycles.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice