Archived: Lydney Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lydney Practice on 13 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. However, there were two minor risks the practice had not fully considered which related to access to the dispensary and COSHH records held in the practice.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.

• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and 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.

• 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.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• A practice GP had implemented a new protocol for monitoring high risk medicines and devised a booklet for patients’ personal usage. This ensured that all patients were aware when their next blood check was due and also gave the practice and secondary care services a means to monitor blood results more closely to avoid repeated tests.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Implement a robust risk assessment for assessing and monitoring risks with staff members having access to the dispensary.

• Undertake thorough COSHH analysis and complete a robust COSHH risk assessment utilising safety data sheets for all cleaning products held.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice