Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Quayside Medical Practice on 10 March 2016. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows
- Patients were protected by a strong comprehensive safety system and a focus on openness, transparency and learning when things go wrong.
- Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
- The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice.
- Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive.
- The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients’ needs. For example, working with a local organisation in providing a workshop so people could learn how to cook on a restricted budget.
- 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, changing the quantity of pre-bookable appointments available on a Monday as this was the busiest day for the practice with patients requiring urgent appointments following the weekend.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- The practice actively reviewed complaints and how they are managed and responded to, and made improvements as a result.
- The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced with stakeholders and was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.
- The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.
We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:
- The practice had worked with nursing home staff in developing a system whereby patients with long term conditions could have deterioration in their condition recognised and care intervention started immediately by administering medicines that had been provided for such an issue. This has assisted in reducing A&E attendance by 13% and unplanned admissions by 20% for patients aged 75 years and over in the year from 2014/15 and 2015/16.
- The practice, recognised the level of deprivation their patients faced. They had collaborated in securing funding from the Clinical Commissioning Group to provide free transport for patients to enable them to attend appointments at the practice and the local hospitals, along with attending the minor injuries unit instead of A&E. The service was also available to patients of neighbouring practices. 28% of Patients using this service had reported that without this support being available they may not have attended their appointments as they may not have been able to afford to get there and 60% of transport users report improved emotional wellbeing due to this service. This service had provided 3,242 passenger trips between February 2015 and January 2016.
- The practice hosted a carers support worker who provided support and advice for patients on a range of issues once a month. This clinic ran between 9am and 5pm on one Tuesday per month and could be accessed by appointment or by dropping in on the day.
- The practice undertook an “after death” analysis on patient’s to recognise areas of good practice and to ensure any areas of development were acted upon appropriately.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice