The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

The Alney Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Highnam Surgery, Lassington Lane, Highnam, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, GL2 8DH (01452) 529699

Provided and run by:
The Alney Practice

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Alney Practice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about The Alney Practice, you can give feedback on this service.

02 December to 02 December

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of The Alney Practice on 02 December 2019, following our annual review of the information available to us including information provided by the practice. Our review indicated that there may have been a significant change to the quality of care provided since the last inspection.

This inspection focused on the following key questions:

  • Are services safe?
  • Are services effective?
  • Are services caring?
  • Are services responsive?
  • Are services well-led?

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
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We rated the practice as Good overall. All population groups were rated Good except people experiencing poor mental health, which was rated as Requires Improvement.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing responsive services because:

  • Patients experiencing poor mental health did not always have improved outcomes. Patient mental health indicators were below local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and national averages, and exception reporting for these patients exceeded local and national averages.
  • The practice had poor patient feedback in relation to their ability to be able to access care in a timely way.

We rated the practice as good for providing safe, effective, caring and well-led services because:

  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs, except for patients experiencing poor mental health, and families, children and young people.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. They were delivered in a flexible way that ensured choice and continuity of care.
  • There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance.

We found areas where the provider should make improvements. The provider should:

  • Continue with measures to monitor and improve patient satisfaction with services.
  • Continue with action to improve the uptake of cervical cancer screening.
  • Continue with measures to improve outcomes for patients experiencing poor mental health. Patient mental health indicators were below local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and national averages, and exception reporting for these patients exceeded local and national averages.
  • Continue with measures to resolve data quality issues regarding childhood immunisations.

(Please refer to the requirement notice section at the end of the report for more detail).

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

7 January 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Highnam Surgery on 7 January 2015. Overall the practice is rated as Good.

We found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services for older adults, families and children, patients with long term conditions, vulnerable patients, patients with mental health issues and patients who worked.

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

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • Overall patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care. There were arrangements to enable patients with urgent same day needs to see a GP on the same day. However, patients told us there could be long waits after their appointment time for a same day appointment.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
  • The practice met nationally recognised quality standards for improving patient care and maintaining quality.
  • The practice met the requirements of the Dispensary service quality scheme to maintain safe medicines management practice.

The provider SHOULD:

  • Ensure the urgent appointments system is reviewed to improve patient waiting times.
  • Implement the plan to proactively seek feedback from patients.
  • Review governance arrangements to ensure clinical protocols are maintained to clinical governance standards.
  • Review the available space in the dispensary to enable the safe storage and dispensing of medicines.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice