29 March 2022 & 30 March 2022
During a routine inspection
We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection at Patford House Surgery Partnership in May 2021. The overall rating for the practice was Inadequate, specifically Inadequate for the provision of responsive and well-led services and Requires Improvement for the provision of safe, effective and caring services. We used our enforcement powers to take action against the breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 including issuing two warning notices. We placed the practice in special measures to enable the practice to improve.
We undertook a further inspection in November 2021. This inspection was undertaken to determine whether the breaches of regulation had been addressed following the inspection in May 2021 and did not provide a new rating. Whilst improvements had been made in relation to the high-risk concerns highlighted at the last inspection, there were several areas which constituted new and continued breaches of regulations.
At this inspection in March 2022, we found that significant improvements had been taken to improve the provision of care and treatment. Following the March 2022 inspection, we have provided a new overall rating of Good and the key questions have been rated as:
- Safe - Good
- Effective - Good
- Caring - Good
- Responsive – Requires improvement
- Well-led - Good
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Patford House Surgery Partnership on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
This inspection was a comprehensive inspection of all key questions, to follow up on breaches of regulations and to apply an updated rating for the practice.
How we carried out the inspection
Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
This included:
- Conducting staff interviews
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
- Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
- Requesting evidence from the provider including the action plan following the last inspection
- Site visits to all three sites
- Discussions with practice staff, local care homes who access GP services from the practice and the patient participation group
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 have rated this practice as Good overall
We found that:
- It was evident the practice had gone through a period of transition. This included merging practices in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing concerns from past CQC inspections and significant staff changes within all the teams in the practice.
- The practice had, with the support of the clinical commissioning group (CCG) and additional external resources, made significant improvements to provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- These systems were newly implemented and required further embedding to ensure the practice would be able to sustain and make further improvements to ensure they were effective.
- The practice had been challenged with some staff changes and difficulties in recruiting clinical members of staff, however, they used locums who provided sessions on a regular basis. The practice had an active recruitment drive in place and had recently employed new members of staff to join the different teams within the practice.
- We reviewed patient consultation records and found examples of appropriate clinical interventions, monitoring, prescribing and coding, ensuring accurate information was available for any health professional that required it.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Personal development and learning was actively promoted and a wide range of learning opportunities were provided for staff of all grades and disciplines.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice ensured learning from complaints was shared effectively with staff and demonstrated that all complaints had been acted in line with practice policy and national guidance around response timescales.
- The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, patient feedback and satisfaction was low and highlighted further adjustments needed to be made in response to accessing services.
- The practice had an effective governance system in place, was well organised and actively sought to learn from previous inspections, performance data, complaints, incidents and feedback.
The practice had engaged with the findings of our last report, had worked with the local CCG and other external teams to identify the recovery plan, make the changes, monitor and ensure those improvements were sustainable. Relationships had been made with the external team to strengthen the leadership, and feedback from staff was positive about the changes and future. However, where improvements had been made the practice needed to ensure they were fully embedded, monitored and sustained.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Continue to work with the CCG and other external stakeholders to improve communication and teamwork across the local health economy.
- Review the practice website and include information and contact details about local and national support services.
- Continue to review and improve patient access to services.
- Continue to embed, further improve and sustain the newly implemented systems and processes to provide safe, effective and responsive care.
I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the improvements that have been made to the quality of care provided by this service.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care