Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Wootton Vale Healthy Living Centre; Dr Lindsay Mackenzie on 27 April 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 in place for reporting and recording significant events.
- Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
- Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
- Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
- Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive.
- The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group
- The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they met patients’ needs.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients.
- The practice actively reviewed complaints and assessed how they were managed. They responded to complaints, ensuring improvements and changes took place as a result.
- The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. The strategy to deliver this vision had been produced with stakeholders and was regularly reviewed and discussed with staff.
- The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.
- The practice had strong and visible clinical and managerial leadership and governance arrangements.
We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:
The practice employed two healthcare coordinators. This role provided the link between clinicians and patients to offer support and advice in areas such as smoking cessation, support for patients diagnosed with cancer, referring patients to secondary care and identifying and supporting carers.
The practice‘s vision is to facilitate provision of care and services in a community setting. We saw numerous examples of how it has achieved this including the following:
- The lead GP had undertaken a redesign of the clinical team to ensure a quality service was provided and had developed a Women’s Health Practitioner role to support women’s health and provide sexual health advice to men and women.
- The practice managed an integrated gynaecology service, commissioned by Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (BCCG) for surrounding practices. This service allows women to receive treatment and tests in a primary care setting, reducing the need for hospital attendance with the exception of surgical procedures.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice