Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Green and Partners on 3 October 2016. The practice was rated requires improvement for effective services. The overall rating for the practice was good. The full comprehensive report on the October 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr Green and Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 15 May 2017 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 3 October 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
The practice is now rated as good for providing effective services.
Our key findings were as follows:
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Staff had received training pertinent to their role and responsibilities and the training policy had been updated to reflect suitable intervals for updates and further training. All GPs had received fire safety, equality and diversity and Mental Capacity Act (2005) training.
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All patients on the learning disability register had been offered an annual review.
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The practice had identified a programme of continuous clinical audit to improve services to patients.
In addition to the above we saw evidence of the practice taking action to reduce waiting times for patient appointments. The practice had added administration time to patient appointments so patients received a full 10 minutes and the GP had time to write up the patient record. This had been discussed and reviewed with the patient participation group and had commenced in May 2017. Patients who had multiple concerns or complex medical histories were automatically offered a double appointment to accommodate their enhanced needs. In addition, when a clinic was running over, the GPs would announce the delay to the waiting room over the tannoy. These initiatives had been implemented recently and were too early to measure the impact this was having on patient waiting times.
The practice had also reviewed the doorway access from the lobby and waiting room to the reception area. They had applied for funding to reconfigure the ground floor of the building to improve access for patients. The funding was secured in March 2017 and the practice was consulting with an architect, practice staff and the patient participation group to gain views on how this can be improved.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice