Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Ashlea Medical Centre – Linden House on 13 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.
The provider has two practice locations. Linden House situated in Leatherhead and Gilbert House situated in Ashtead. We inspected both practices separately. This report relates to Linden House. Gilbert House was inspected on 5 November 2014 the details of which can be read in a separate report.
Linden House provides primary medical services to people living in Leatherhead. The practice is situated in a residential area.
At the time of our inspection there were approximately 9,300 patients registered at the service with a team of five GP partners who held managerial and financial responsibility and two salaried GPs. Linden House is a GP training practice and at the time of the inspection was providing training and support for two registrars.
The inspection team spoke with staff and patients and reviewed policies and procedures implemented throughout the practice. The practice was responsive to the needs of the local population and engaged effectively with other services. There was a culture of openness and transparency within the practice. The practice was committed to providing high quality patient care and provided good support and training to staff to facilitate this. The practice is required to record significant events onto an annual summary and we saw this was not routinely being completed. GP’s told us all significant events and lessons learnt were discussed during daily meetings, however, these meetings were not recorded. We noted that some care plans were hand written and not being recorded on to patient’s electronic records. This did not allow for other clinicians to see actions agreed with the patient for their ongoing care.
Our key findings included:-
- Patients told us they felt they were treated with respect and dignity
- Staff were mindful of patient privacy and confidentiality was maintained.
- Patients told us there was a wide range of appointments, including urgent appointments available the same day.
- Infection control audits and cleaning schedules were in place and the practice was seen to be clean and tidy
- An active patient participation group working in partnership with the practice
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Importantly, the provider must:
- Record all significant events and ensure that regular review meetings are held and documented to demonstrate that the practice had learnt from these and that findings are shared with relevant staff.
In addition the provider should:
- Record minutes from reception staff meetings
- Ensure all staff are offering the chaperoning services to all patients
- Ensure all staff complete safeguarding for Vulnerable Adults training
- Record all care plans onto patient electronic records in a way that allows for sharing of information
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice