Henley-in-Arden Medical Centre provides primary medical services to patients living in Henley-in-Arden, South Warwickshire and the surrounding area. A team of five doctors, two nurses, two health care assistants and 11 administrative staff including a practice manager provided care and treatment for approximately 6800 patients. Henley-in-Arden Medical Centre is a training practice for fully qualified doctors to gain experience and higher qualifications in general practice and family medicine.
We spoke with 12 patients on the day of our inspection who were all very complimentary about the care and treatment they received. They told us all the staff were friendly, helpful, professional, kind and caring. We reviewed the 26 patient comments cards from our Care Quality Commission (CQC) comments box within the practice. Comments were overwhelmingly positive. We looked at the results of the annual patient survey completed in partnership between the Patient Participation Group (PPG) and the practice. The overall results demonstrated that patients felt very happy with the services they received.
We found that the service was safe because there were systems in place to protect patients from abuse and avoidable harm. There was a strong focus on openness and transparency internally and externally when things went wrong. There was a genuinely just and open culture, which embraced concerns from staff and patients for their learning potential. However, we found that Patient Group Directives for the safe administration of vaccines were not always signed or easily accessible.
We found that the service was effective. Care and treatment was delivered in line with current published best practice achieving good outcomes for patients and promoting a good quality of life. The process of gaining informed consent however, may not have always supported vulnerable patients because not all staff were aware of the implications of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
We found that the service was caring. All the patients we spoke with told us that staff treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Feedback from patients and those close to them was consistently positive about the way staff interacted with patients.
The service was responsive because services were organised in conjunction with its community to enable patients to access services. There was an open culture within the organisation and patient suggestions for improving the service were acted upon.
We found that the service was well led. The leadership, management and governance of the practice assured the delivery of high-quality care, supported learning and innovation and promoted an open and fair culture.