Archived: Your Health Partnership Also known as Carters Green Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Carters Green Medical Centre on 29th November 2016. The practice is part of Your Health Partnership (YHP) a four practice group operating with centralised management and governance. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• Information about the services were provided and how to complain was available and easy to understand. The practice website informed patients of the complaints process and the services available. There was a facility to translate the website into a variety of languages.

• Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. However the size and design of the building limited the number of consulting rooms available and access to consulting rooms on the first floor was difficult for patients with mobility problems.

• 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. Patients said appointments had become easier to access in the last six months.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

• All patients who reported or sought help from other providers after an episode of attempted or actual self-harm were contacted by telephone or offered a face to face appointment within one week to discuss ongoing care by a GP.

• The practice kept a register of patients with coeliac disease and offered them an annual review.

The provider should make improvements as follows:

• Continue to encourage attendance for cancer screening programmes.

• Continue to monitor and ensure improvement to patient feedback regarding access, for example patient perception and access options available

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice