The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

The Greyswood Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

66 Eastwood Street, London, SW16 6PX (020) 8769 0845

Provided and run by:
The Greyswood Practice

All Inspections

9 and 12 October 2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection) at The Greyswood Practice on 9 and 12 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe – good.

Effective – good.

Caring – good.

Responsive – good.

Well-led – good.

Following our previous inspection on 20 March 2015 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions, except for responsive which was rated outstanding. At this inspection, we found that those areas previously regarded as outstanding practice were now embedded throughout the majority of GP practices. While the provider had maintained this good practice, the threshold to achieve an outstanding rating had not been reached. The practice is therefore now rated good for providing responsive services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Greyswood Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection.

We carried out this comprehensive inspection because the practice has not been inspected since 2015.

How we carried out the inspection.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A short site visit.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • The practice had systems for the appropriate and safe use of medicines, including medicines optimisation.
  • Patients with long-term conditions were offered an effective annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • The practice had implemented a new system to ensure patients were offered an assessment of need or signposted to an appropriate service at first contact with the practice.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
  • The practice had carried out an annual staff survey and responded to the feedback.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Continue to monitor the role specific training of the practice nurses.
  • Consider providing reception with a prompt to aid them identifying any with urgent needs.
  • Continue to identify any new patients that are affected by a safety alert.
  • Continue to review and improve patient satisfaction regarding access to the practice.
  • Continue to idenitfy and respond to carers.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care

20 March 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Greyswood practice on 20 March 2015.

We found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, and caring services. It was also good for providing services for the population groups we report on: older people, people with long term conditions, the working age people including those recently retired and students, people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health. We also found the practice to be outstanding for providing responsive and well-led services. It was also outstanding for providing services for the population groups we report on: families, children and young people.

Our key inspection findings were as follows:

  • There were systems in place for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events to help provide improved care.
  • Staff were clear of their roles in regards to monitoring and reporting of incidents, safeguarding vulnerable people and children, and following infection prevention and control guidelines.
  • Staff shared best practice through internal arrangements and meetings and also by sharing knowledge and expertise with external consultants and other GP practices.
  • There was a strong multidisciplinary input in the service delivery to improve patient outcomes.
  • Feedback from patients about their care and treatment was very positive.
  • The practice was responsive to the needs of vulnerable patients and there was a strong focus on caring and on the provision of patient-centred care.
  • The practice provided patients with information on health promotion and ill health prevention services available in the practice and the local community.
  • The practice has a clear vision and strategic direction which was to improve the health, well-being and lives of those that they care for at the practice. Staff were suitably supported and patient care and safety was a high priority.

We saw examples of the practice being outstanding in how they responded to the needs of children, people with long-term conditions and those experiencing poor mental health:

  • A practice led initiative had been put in place to send birthday cards to all patients registered with the practice aged one to three years of age. The birthday cards were used to inform parents, carers and families to the long term benefits and recommended uptake of immunisations. Cards with the same information were also sent to all new born patients and their mothers. The practice were able to demonstrate improvement in areas such as Improved immunisations for example the practice level for the pre-school booster improved from below 50% in 2011 to 93% in the last quarter of 2014 and continues at this level into 2015.
  • The practice was taking part in the local PACT (Planning All Care Together) initiative where community healthcare and social services work as one. The aim of the initiative is to help people with long-term conditions live more independent lives and to prevent complications. High-risk patients were identified using an assessment tool and were seen by both a nurse and a GP. From April 2014 to January 2015 the practice had completed around 350 of these appointments, over 100 being home visits.
  • The practice worked closely with relevant professionals in order to provide a responsive service to people experiencing poor mental health. For example, the practice held meetings with the area consultant psychiatrist quarterly to review all patients on the practice mental health register.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice