The Elms Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Elms Medical Centre on 12 January 2016. 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.
• Risks to patients were assessed and 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 said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was readily available in document form for patients.
• 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.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements as follows:

• The GPs should ensure that minutes are kept for safeguarding meetings attended by the GPs with other agencies.

• Undertake a risk assessment for the need to have a defibrillator at Blacon Clinic for use in an emergency. According to current external guidance and national standards, practices should be encouraged to have defibrillators.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice