Archived: Stanley Road Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Stanley Road Medical Centre on11 August 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 lessons learnt disseminated.
• 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 and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients were treated with care, compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. They were not rushed at appointments and full explanations of their treatment were given. They valued their practice and rated it highly for patient satisfaction.
• 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 routine and urgent appointments available the same day.
• 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.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• The practice staff had worked at the practice for a long period of time providing continuity in care and individuality with patients being well known to the practice. There was a high level of satisfaction with the care and patient experience as a whole. Results from the recently published National Patient Survey (July 2015) were exceptionally high and significantly above local and national data. Patients we spoke with and comment cards reviewed confirmed this high level of satisfaction with the care given by the practice staff.

There was an area where the provider could make improvements and they should:

• Ensure that national patient safety and other relevant alerts and guidance is followed and actions taken recorded.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice