We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr A M Wright and Partners on 30 August 2023.
Overall, the practice is rated as Outstanding with the following key question ratings:
Safe - Good
Effective – Good
Caring - Outstanding
Responsive - Outstanding
Well-led - Outstanding
Following our previous inspection on 2 December 2014, the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr A M Wright and Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection.
We carried out this comprehensive inspection in line with our inspection priorities as the practice had not been inspected since December 2014. During our inspection we reviewed our 5 key questions of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.
How we carried out the inspection/review
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.
This included:
- Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
- To ensure we gathered staff feedback we used a questionnaire which was given to staff electronically via email.
- Completing remote clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements) and discussing findings with the provider.
- Reviewing patient records remotely to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
- Requesting evidence to be submitted to us electronically from the provider.
- Interviews with care homes covered by the practice.
- A 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.
Our findings
We rated the practice as outstanding for providing caring services because:
- People were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care, practically and emotionally, by an exceptional and distinctive service.
- Feedback from people who used the service, those who were close to them, and stakeholders was continually positive about the way staff treated people. People thought that staff went the extra mile, and their care and support exceeded their expectations.
- Feedback from patients was consistently positive and was higher than local and national averages.
- The practice demonstrated a truly patient-centred culture and staff were committed to delivering excellent care to meet the needs of individuals.
- The practice adopted a holistic approach to caring by addressing all the needs of the patient, including their physical, mental, and emotional health, while taking social factors into consideration.
- The practice had achieved outstanding results in the national GP Patient survey and had maintained these high standards for several years and remained higher than local and national averages.
- We found numerous examples of how the practice had gone to significant efforts to support vulnerable individuals to access health and social care, and how they had worked pro-actively with other organisations to support patients.
We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services because:
- The practice had achieved outstanding results in the national GP Patient survey and had maintained these high scores for several years.
- Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual people and were delivered in a way to ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care.
- There were innovative approaches to providing integrated person-centred pathways of care that involved other service providers, particularly for people with multiple and complex needs.
- The practice had educational resources to ensure the patient population had the appropriate knowledge and understanding when accessing the surgery.
- We found that patients individual needs and preferences were central to the delivery of services.
- Facilities and premises were innovative to meet the needs of a range of people who used the service.
- Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The practice embraced social prescribing for the community to ensure patients received timely intervention when they needed it most, signposted them to services that could help them and ensured support was offered locally so the patient population could easily attend appointments.
We rated the practice as outstanding for providing a well-led service because:
- Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose and motivated staff to succeed.
- There was compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership at all levels. Leaders demonstrated the high levels of experience, capacity and capability needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred and sustainable care. There was a deeply embedded system of leadership development and succession planning, which ensured that the leadership represented the diversity of the workforce.
- Leaders at every level were visible and approachable. Leaders had a deep understanding of issues, challenges and priorities in their service, and beyond.
- There were high levels of staff satisfaction across all staff groups. Staff were proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture. Staff at all levels were actively encouraged to speak up and raise concerns, and all policies and procedures positively supported this process. There were consistently high levels of constructive staff engagement.
- Staff felt valued and supported to develop personally and professionally.
- There was a strong organisational commitment towards equality and inclusion across all the patient population and the workforce. Quality and integrity were a high priority resulting in a caring culture within a strong practice.
We have rated this practice as good for providing safe and effective services because:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulation, the areas the practice should improve are:
- Continue to monitor antibiotic prescribing.
- Implement the newly formalised system for reviewing the prescribing practice of non-medical prescribers.
- Continue to encourage uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical cancer screening.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA
Chief Inspector of Health Care