Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Groby Road Medical Centre on 27 January 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good.
This inspection was carried out to follow-up our previous comprehensive inspection which took place on 24 May 2016 when we rated the practice as inadequate overall. In particular, the practice was rated as inadequate for providing safe, effective and well-led services, requires improvement for being caring and good for being responsive. The practice was placed in special measures for a period of six months.
Following the inspection in May 2016, the practice submitted an action plan to the Care Quality Commission outlining how they would make the necessary improvements to comply with the regulations. The practice also invested in a practice resilience support programme provided by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to provide diagnostic assessment and tailored intervention throughout the period of special measures. In January 2017, we found the practice had responded to the concerns raised at the previous inspection and significant improvements had been made.
The practice is rated as good for the provision of safe, caring and effective services and for being well-led and requires improvement for being responsive. Our improved rating of good reflects the positive development of leadership and management systems to deliver significant progress in improving services.
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.
- Significant improvements to risk management had been made and risks to patients were now being assessed and managed. The practice had implemented a risk register and employed the services of external specialists to carry out specific risk assessments such as for fire and legionella.
- 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.
- The practice had implemented a system of appraisals, mentorship and supervision, all members of staff had received an appraisal.
- The practice had implemented a meeting structure and a 12 month programme of meetings. Evidence showed that staff were working with multi-disciplinary teams to understand and meet the range and complexity of patients’ needs.
- 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.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- The practice had implemented a new management structure. There was a clear leadership structure in place and staff told us they felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
- The practice had a clear vision that had improvement of service quality and safety as its top priority. The practice fully embraced the need to change, high standards were promoted and there was good evidence of team working.
- The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
- Address the issues highlighted in the national GP survey in order to improve patient satisfaction, including access to appointments and ease of getting through to the practice by telephone.
- Review systems in place to manage and monitor processes to improve outcomes for patients in order to improve exception reporting rates which are higher than local and national averages.
This service was placed in special measures in August 2016. Improvements have been made and Groby Road Medical Centre is now rated as good. I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements made to the quality of care provided by this service.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice