29 March 2018
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Meads Medical Practice on 5 October 2017. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report on the April 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Meads Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 29 March 2018. The purpose was to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 5 October 2017. A comprehensive action plan was provided by the practice in a timely manner, which detailed how action had been taken to make improvement. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is now rated as Good.
Our key findings were as follows:
- There was a system to help ensure that all medicines alerts from the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) were actioned appropriately.
- The practice was part of a commissioning pathway where some patients who were prescribed warfarin, an anticoagulant medicine, had their blood-clotting levels monitored outside of the practice. There was a system to check and record these levels prior to treatment being prescribed.
- Higher than average areas of exception reporting for clinical outcomes had been addressed. The system to identify patients who were due to attend routine reviews had been reviewed. (Exception reporting is the removal of patients from calculations where, for example, the patients are unable to attend a review meeting).
- There was a clear programme of quality reviews and clinical audits. Second cycles of audits had been carried out to demonstrate sustained improvements to patient outcomes.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice