10 September 2015
During a routine inspection
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Upton Rocks Surgery, Widnes, Cheshire on 10 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, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
- Risks to patients were assessed and managed.
- Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and training planned to address these.
- Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
- 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, with urgent appointments available the same day.
- 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 could make improvements.
The provider should
- Review arrangements for patient access to a GP on Monday’s to ensure this adequately meets patients needs, and make the current arrangement for GP access on Monday’s clearer to patients.
- Take steps to improve patient experience with GPs, as identified in the last NHS England GP Patient Survey.
- Increase the participation rates of patients in the Friends and Family test to provide a balanced picture of patient focussed services at the practice.
- Follow-up the required NICEIC certificate in respect of electrical safety of the premises.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice