The Care Quality Commission
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Torrington Park Group Practice

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Torrington Park Health Centre, 16 Torrington Park, North Finchley, London, N12 9SS (020) 3667 5030

Provided and run by:
Torrington Park Group Practice

All Inspections

11 October 2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Torrington Park Group Practice on 11 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe - requires improvement.

Effective – good.

Caring – good.

Responsive - requires improvement.

Well-led - requires improvement.

During the inspection process, the practice highlighted efforts they are making to improve outcomes and treatment for their population. They had only recently been implemented and the effect of these efforts is not yet reflected in verified evidence. As such, the ratings for this inspection have not been impacted. However, we continue to monitor the data and where we see potential changes, we will follow these up with the practice.

Following our previous inspection on 1 September 2015, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Torrington Park Group Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities. We reviewed all key questions as part of this inspection.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A short site visit.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

  • Patients’ needs were assessed and the practice was generally prescribing safely, although improvements were needed in reviewing patients prescribed certain medicines and acting on safety alerts.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The practice had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • Data from the National GP Patient Survey (2023) showed that the practice was rated below local and national averages for questions relating to accessing the service. Although we saw the practice was attempting to improve access, this was not yet reflected in patient feedback.
  • There was a strong emphasis on the well-being of staff.
  • Although there were clear responsibilities, roles and systems for accountability, there were shortfalls in mitigating risks relating to disclosure and barring service checks and immunisation history for non-clinical staff.

We found breaches of regulations. The provider must:

  • Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

In addition, the provider should:

  • Continue to address all outstanding actions from the health and safety and fire safety risk assessments.
  • Continue to improve the systems and processes to increase uptake for childhood immunisations and cervical screening.
  • Improve the system for monitoring staff training.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care

01 September 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Torrington Park Group Practice on 01 September 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, reviewed and addressed appropriately.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles. They felt supported in identifying further training needs and were confident these needs would be met. The practice was formalising its appraisal system for nursing and non clinical staff at the time of our visit. GP appraisal was well established.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect 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. Urgent appointments were available.
  • The practice had good 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.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly the provider should:

  • Review personnel records so information as required is available in relation to each person employed including proof of identity and a recent photograph.
  • Raise patients’ awareness of the online appointment booking system.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice