New Longton Surgery

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at New Longton Surgery on 11 February 2020 as part of our inspection programme. We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services, outstanding for the provision of caring services and good for all other key questions and overall.

The full comprehensive report on the February 2020 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for New Longton Surgery on our website at .

At our inspection in February 2020 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:

• There were gaps in safety systems and processes; staff files were not always held securely, some premises and staff risk assessments were lacking and there was a lack of processes to assure safe staffing. Monitoring of loose computer prescription paper and some medicines was in need of improvement.

We also indicated additional improvements should be made as follows:

• Record an action plan to support the improvements undertaken form infection prevention and control audits.
• Introduce an ongoing formal GP audit of items removed from the post by non-clinical staff without sight of a GP.

We were mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what type of inspection was necessary and proportionate. This was therefore a desk-based review. On 7 October 2020 we commenced the desk-based review to confirm the practice had carried out its plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach of regulations that we identified in the February 2020 inspection. We also looked at progress made against the areas identified in our previous inspection where the practice should make improvements (but were not breaches of regulation). We have found the practice is now meeting those requirements and we have amended the rating for the practice accordingly. The practice is now rated as good for providing safe services.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• What we found when we reviewed the information sent to us by the provider
• Information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• Information from the provider.

We have rated this practice as good for providing safe services because:

• There was a process in place to ensure staff files were checked to be complete and were held securely. A confidential health questionnaire had been introduced for new staff.
• Premises fire risk procedures had been tightened and completed.
• There was a new premises electrical safety certificate in place, the legionella risk assessment had been renewed and water testing was current. (Legionella is a term for a particular bacterium which can contaminate water systems in buildings.)
• The new online practice governance software had been used to make a full record of staff training, immunisation status and membership of professional bodies.
• Loose computer prescription paper was monitored appropriately and checks on medicines held by the practice were comprehensive.
• There was a detailed action plan recorded following a recent audit of infection prevention and control arrangements.
• A new monthly process had been introduced to ensure GP audit of items of post removed by non-clinical staff without sight of a GP.

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