Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We visited East Barnwell Health Centre on the 22 June 2015 and carried out a comprehensive inspection. We found that the practice provided a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led service. The overall rating for this practice is good.
We examined patient care across the following population groups: older people; those with long term medical conditions; families, babies, children and young people; working age people and those recently retired; people in vulnerable circumstances who may have poor access to primary care; and people experiencing poor mental health. We found that care was tailored appropriately to the individual circumstances and needs of the patients in these groups.
Our key findings were as follows:
- The practice had a GP led telephone triage service. Patients were able to get an urgent appointment the same day, if they needed to be seen urgently.
- Patients were treated with dignity, care and respect. They were involved in decisions about their care and treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
- The practice was friendly, caring and responsive. It addressed patients’ needs and worked in partnership with other health and social care services to deliver individualised care.
- The practice had responded to the needs of their patient population. They had a number of initiatives which directly impacted positively on the specific needs of their patient population. These included initiatives to improve health inequalities.
- The clinical leadership at the practice was forward thinking and supportive.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. The provider should:
- Ensure that they have documented assurance from external agencies that identified checks and work had been undertaken. This included for example cleaning records, spot checks of cleaning and Disclosure and Barring Service checks for locum staff.
- Improve the follow up of vulnerable patients who did not attend for their appointment.
- Improve arrangements for providing patients with information about the complaints process, in particular including how to escalate complaints if they remained dissatisfied.
- Ensure that all policies are dated and reviewed.
- Improve the security within the practice, so that patients do not have unauthorised access to medicines, blank prescription forms or confidential patient information.
We saw two areas of outstanding practice, which included:
- The practice had obtained funding from the Evelyn Trust for a long term condition nurse to work specifically with patients between the aged of 16 and 65 for one year. This service had been running for approximately three months and positive patients outcomes had been identified. These included a reduction in GP time and hospital admission and verbal feedback from patients had been extremely positive.
- The practice was proactively working with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) on a one year project to test the impact of CAB advice delivered as a front line health service. The aim is to measure the impact on patients, for example, patients reporting less stress, less need to attend the GP practice and less time that health professionals spend on patients with non-medical problems. The service is funded for three days a week and is already being well used.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice