Akerman Medical Practice

We decided to undertake an inspection of Akerman Medical Practice, following our annual review of the information available to us.

This inspection focused on the key questions Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led.

We rated the practice as Requires Improvement overall with the following key question ratings:

Safe- Good

Effective – Requires Improvement

Caring- Requires Improvement

Responsive- Good

Well-led – Good

The practice had previously been inspected on 15 August 2016 and had been rated as good overall.

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 requires improvement overall and requires improvement for Families, children and young people and Working age people (including those recently retired and students) due to low clinical patient outcomes.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective services because:

• Whilst there was monitoring of the outcomes of care and treatment, the practices patient quality outcomes relating to Families, children and young people and Working age people were low compared to local and national levels.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing caring services because:

• Results from the national GP patient survey relating to patient experience were low compared to local and national levels.

We rated the practice as good for providing safe services because:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.

We also rated the practice as good for providing well-led services because:

• The leadership, governance and culture promoted the delivery of high-quality person-centred care. However, the leadership of the practice acknowledged the difficulties they had with staff changes in the last few months and were aware of the areas that required strengthening.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review arrangements for emergency equipment used at the practice.
• Continue efforts to increase the uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical cancer screening.
• Continue efforts to strengthen the systems used for monitoring patients on high risk medicines.
• Continue to address patient feedback from the National GP National Patient Survey.

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.