Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
This is a focused desk based review of evidence supplied by North Shore Surgery to demonstrate what action they have taken to improve the service in the key question of Safe.
Overall, the practice is rated as good. Following this focused desk based review of the practice; we found the practice to be good in relation to providing Safe services.
North Shore Surgery was inspected on the 23 July 2015. The inspection was a comprehensive inspection under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At that inspection, the GP practice was rated ‘good’ overall. However, we found the practice to require improvement for the domain or key question Safe. This was specifically in relation to recruitment procedures and the checks carried out to ensure the suitability of staff for their roles. This was because the practice was not meeting the requirements of Regulation 19 Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 Fit and proper persons employed.
We found there were significant gaps in the recruitment records of new staff. The practice did not maintain appropriate records to demonstrate that all newly recruited staff including some clinical staff had been appropriately vetted to ensure they were suitable and safe to work with potentially vulnerable adults and children.
The practice submitted an action plan with timescales detailing how they would ensure they met the Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. They supplied us with evidence to confirm that all staff employed at the practice had been appropriately vetted, that disclosure and barring checks (DBS) were available for all staff, including locum GPs and the practice’s recruitment policy had been updated. In addition they supplied a copy of their updated recruitment policy.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice