Archived: Wilderness Road Surgery

This practice is rated as Good overall.

(Wilderness Road Surgery is a newly registered practice and this is the first inspection of this service under this provider.)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Wilderness Road Surgery on 9 May 2018. This inspection was carried out under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned because the provider of the service had changed and to check whether the new provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. We also looked at the overall quality of the service and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.

• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.

• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported they were able to access care when they needed it. Patient feedback on the care and treatment delivered by all staff was consistently positive.

• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

• A firm commitment to offering continuity of care whilst enhancing the choice of GPs available to patients.

• Change management was undertaken in an inclusive manner to ensure patients services were not affected when the provider changed.

• The practice demonstrated a commitment to improve services. For example, it had identified lower than average attendance for cancer screening and immunisations and had implemented improved recall systems to follow up patients that did not attend.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to develop a workflow protocol to deal with communications coming into the practice and an audit process to ensure compliance.

• Review the sustainability of improvements made on the day of inspection. For example, completing the scheduled fire drill and reviewing advice for receptionists to identify potential life threatening symptoms..

• Review the effect of updating the recall systems for cancer screening and immunisations to evaluate whether they have proven effective.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPHFRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice.