Archived: Drs Hanson, Perry, Paisley, Ashworth, Hammerton and Symons Also known as Warwick House Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Drs Hanson, Perry, Paisley, Ashworth, Hammerton and Symons (Warwick House Medical Centre) on 10 June 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was also good for providing services for older patients, patients with long term conditions, families, children and young patients, working age patients (including those recently retired and students), patients whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and patients experiencing poor mental health (including patients living with dementia).

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report accidents, incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and learnt from their investigations.
• Risks to patients were assessed and appropriately managed.
• 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.
• Care and treatment of patients was carried out effectively by appropriately skilled staff.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect by all staff 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments always available the same day.
• The practice had suitable facilities and 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 including:

• One of the nurses had a lead role in a local peer group for respiratory care and delivered learning sessions to the network four times a year. They also benefitted from peer support through the network and were able to share best practice with colleagues which benefitted patients at the practice and the wider community.
• The practice had undertaken a Medical Protection Society safety culture survey in February 2015 to ensure a “safety first “approach guided the practice’s approach to support patient safety.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should:

• Ensure arrangements are in place to agree the frequency of fire evacuation test procedures.
• Consider ways to ensure consistent recording of best interest decisions.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice