The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Archived: The Dale Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

67 Sneinton Dale, Sneinton, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG2 4LG 0844 815 1161

Provided and run by:
The Dale Surgery

All Inspections

11 October 2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice


We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Dale Surgery on 11 October 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 within the practice. Effective systems were in place to enable staff to report and record significant events. Learning from events was shared with relevant staff.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. A range of risk assessments were in place within the practice to support the ongoing review and management of risk.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • Feedback from patients about their care, and their interactions with all practice staff, was positive. Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Most patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a GP. Urgent appointments were available on the day for patients who needed them. Advanced bookings could be made with no restriction on timescales.

  • The practice used clinical audits to review patient care and outcomes had been used to improve services as a result.

  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • The practice worked effectively with the wider multi-disciplinary team to plan and deliver effective and responsive care to keep vulnerable patients safe.
  • There was a clear leadership structure within the practice, and staff felt well-supported by management.
  • Significant emphasis was put on encouraging training clinicians into General Practice and placements were supported at all stages of training.
  • The practice reviewed the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from staff. For example the practice had recruited an additional nurse to support the nursing team following feedback.
  • The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

29 July 2014

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Most people we spoke with told us they were happy with the care and treatment they had received; and that most staff were 'Helpful.' One person told us, 'Staff seem good at their job, and the doctor listens to me when I discuss my health problems.' Another person told us, "The care is good and most times I get an appointment when I need it.' Staff we spoke with told us opportunities for further training and professional development were encouraged and supported. We found suitable arrangements were in place to ensure staff received appropriate supervision and appraisal. The provider had systems in place to ensure the risks to people's safety and welfare were appropriately monitored and managed.

26 February 2014

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out this inspection to follow up on compliance actions we made at our last visit on 8 October 2013. The provider told us they would be compliant by the end of January 2014 with the exception of needing an annual quality auditing system which would be in place by April 2014 and other improvements which would be made to the environment by 2015.

The environment was clean and maintained to prevent and control infections.

There were new and effective processes in place for the safe and secure handling of medicines.

Reasonable steps had been taken to ensure the premises was appropriately maintained and accessible for people who used the service.

Systems to ensure safe recruitment practice had been considered and the staff could access training and informal supervision which met their needs. Periodic individual supervision, to assist the monitoring of staff performance and help identify their learning and support needs was not taking place.

We found that the provider had taken many positive steps toward achieving compliance. Systems were needed to enable the provider to continuously identify, analyse and review risks to ensure risk of non-compliance is resolved as quickly as possible.

8 October 2013

During a routine inspection

The Dale Surgery provided services to people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

During the inspection we spoke with six patients, ten staff and a visiting healthcare professional. We looked at a range of documents however, we were told that some information would not be available for us to see because data had been following a recent computer systems failure.

Almost all patients were happy with their overall experience of the practice. The majority of patients felt involved in decisions about their care and treatment and knew the treatment options available to them. Two patients told us their appointments were sometimes rushed and on those occasions they did not feel that the GP had listened to them. One patient said, 'On the whole, the practice is very good.' Another patient said, 'I feel safe, there's good diagnosis and good follow up on tests.'

We found that care and treatment was delivered in a way that ensured patients' safety and welfare and patients were adequately protected by clear safeguarding processes. However, patients were not protected from the risk of infection because guidance on cleanliness and infection control had not been followed.

We found that overall the provider did not have an effective system to regularly assess and monitor the quality of the service they provided including the recruitment procedures for new staff.