We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Grove Medical on 25 February 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.
Safe - Good
Effective - Good
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led - Good
Following our previous inspection in October 2017, the practice was rated good overall and requires improvement for providing caring services.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Grove Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
This inspection was a comprehensive inspection. We undertook this inspection at the same time as CQC inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in Norfolk and Waveney. To understand the experience of GP Providers and people who use GP services, we asked a range of questions in relation to urgent and emergency care. The responses we received have been used to inform and support system wide feedback.
How we carried out the inspection
Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
This included:
- Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
- Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
- Requesting evidence from the provider
- A short site visit
Our findings
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
We have rated this practice as Good overall
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
We found examples of outstanding practice:
- The practice offered pagers to patients who were hard of hearing which vibrated to alert them to attend their appointment.
- Eight members of staff had enrolled on and were in the process of completing a sign language course. On the trained staff members’ lanyards, their names were displayed in sign language so patients were made aware that sign language could be used.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Consider ways to encourage interactions with the Patient Participation Group.
- Manage the backlog of summarising of patient records.
- Assess the risk relating to the lack of availability of paediatric defibrillator pads.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care