Archived: Dalton Square Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dalton Square Practice on 4/11/2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• The practice prioritised continuity of care for its patients. Patients said they found it easy to make appointments when they needed them.
• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• 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 was consistently and strongly positive. The practice was consistently ranked highly compared to other local feedback for patient satisfaction.Feedback to questions relating to patient access was particularly strong.

• 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.
• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group. For example altering shift patterns of reception staff to better manage busy periods of the day.
• The practice facilities meant it was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice:

• Every patient had a named GP and 65% of all consultations offered were with a patient’s named GP.

• The practice accepted registrations from patients who were resident outside the geographic boundaries of the surgery, as long as it was clinically safe to do so.This allowed for greater flexibility for patients who, perhaps due to work commitments, would find it easier to attend appointments in Lancaster.

• The practice ran a weekly sexual health clinic during university term time. It was not necessary to be registered as a patient with the practice in order to access this service.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Consider maintaining an asset register to safeguard against equipment being overlooked for maintaininace, calibration and testing.

• Ensure appropriate electrical safety cetification is sought for the premises.

• Ensure the formalised systems in place for monitoring emergency medicines and equipment include all medicines held on site.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice