Archived: The Westgate Medical Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Westgate Medical Centre on 4 November 2015. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had 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. Patients were complimentary about the staff at the practice.

• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.

• Patients said they found it difficult getting through to the practice on the telephone. Urgent appointments were available on the same day but patients had to wait up to three or four weeks for planned appointments with a named GP.

• The practice offered a triage and telephone call back service, calling between 50-80 patients each day.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• The practice was going through a period of transition. Two GP partners and third GP had left the practice within the last two years. New partners were now in place but there remained 1¼ GP full time vacancies.

• Despite the period of transition, there was a leadership structure in place and staff felt supported by management.

• The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Ensure all staff receive training in safeguarding appropriate to their role and responsibilities.

• Undertake an assessment of staffing capacity and an audit of patient demand to ensure there is sufficient staff to meet the increasing health care needs of the local patient population.

• Implement the practice policy consistently to monitor fridge temperatures and implement a system to ensure prescriptions not collected by patients are monitored and actioned.

• Continue to review telephone and appointment access to identify strategies to improve patient access to meet demand.

• Ensure a business strategy with clear priorities is developed and implemented to mitigate the risks of reactive management of situations.

• Develop the clinical governance of the practice by holding regular clinical meetings and implementing a planned programme of continuous clinical and internal audit to monitor quality and to make improvements.

• Ensure full team meeting are held so that all staff have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice