Archived: Salisbury Plain Health partnership Also known as Bourne Valley Practice (Salisbury Plain Health Partnership)

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Salisbury Plain Health Partnership on 8 December 2016. Overall the practice was rated as good and requires improvement for providing effective services. The full comprehensive report on the 8 December 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Salisbury Plain Health Partnership on our website at www.cqc.org.uk .

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 1 August 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 8 December 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

We have amended the rating for this practice to reflect these changes. The practice is now rated good for the provision of effective services. Overall the practice remains rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice reviewed their process for the exception reporting of patients with long term conditions and had ensured patients who had previously been excepted, had received the appropriate reviews. (Exception reporting is the removal of patients from Quality Outcomes Framework calculations where, for example, the patients are unable to attend a review meeting or certain medicines cannot be prescribed because of side effects)

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Salisbury Plain Health Partnership, also known as Bourne Valley Practice, on 8 December 2016. 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 for reporting and recording significant events. Incidents and significant events were discussed at a range of meetings including weekly clinical meetings and monthly team meetings.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment. The practice had a positive ethos for the continuous development of staff.

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients’ needs. For example, the practice worked with Wiltshire County Council in hosting well-being courses for patients with mental health problems.

• 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 available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements. There was an ethos of continuous improvement and the partners saw challenges as opportunities to be innovative and embraced change.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice recognised the need of its local population and took part in various initiatives to improve outcomes for patients. They developed an initiative called “Serving on UK” where practice staff who had knowledge of the armed forces supported veterans and families of serving military personnel to have better access to NHS services. The practice had worked with the South West Armed Forces Network, NHS England, the local clinical commissioning group and local military charities so that this initiative could be rolled out nationally.

• The practice had set up a specific Mental Health team which included two mental health support workers employed by the practice under the leadership of a lead GP who had specific qualification and experience in mental health issues. This enabled patients to be reviewed and have increased access to support when they needed it.

The areas where the provider must make improvement are:

• Ensure the number of patients with long term conditions who had been excluded from reviews are appropriately reviewed and identify ways to improve uptake for these reviews.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice