Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Drs Macdonald, Guinan, Charles-Jones & Anderson (also known as Lache Health Centre) on 3rd December 2015.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- Staff were aware of procedures for safeguarding patients from the risk of abuse.
- There were systems in place to reduce risks to patient safety, for example, infection control procedures and the management of staffing levels. However, improvements were needed to the recruitment records and systems in place for the safe management of vaccines.
- Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.
- Patients were overall very positive about the care they received from the practice. They commented that they were treated with respect and dignity and that staff were caring, supportive and helpful.
- Services were planned and delivered to take into account the needs of different patient groups.
- The practice sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service and acted on patient feedback. Information about how to complain was available.
- There were systems in place to monitor and improve quality and identify risk.
We saw an area of outstanding practice:
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The healthcare assistant, practice nurse and practice manager had received awards this year from the West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group for Practice Manager of the Year, Carer’s Link of the year and Practice Nurse of the Year. The awards are designed to recognise, highlight, and reward hard work and innovation.
However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements:
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The procedures for the management of vaccines need to be reviewed to ensure they are held securely, safely monitored and any concerns are identified, reported, investigated and appropriate action taken.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice