Deane Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Deane Medical Centre on 18 December 2015. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

We found the practice to be outstanding the domains for providing safe, effective and well-led services. It was found to be good for providing safe and effective services.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• 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.
• The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them. This included having a website where each page could be translated into many different languages.
• 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 (PPG).
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. A business plan was in place, was monitored and regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• In addition to safeguarding training for adults and children staff had received training in how to recognise domestic violence and how to identify signs of female genital mutilation (FGM). Awareness training focussed on the diverse cultures of the patients of the practice.
• A non-English Speaking Patient (NESP) support worker worked from the practice. They were able to translate for patients but also worked with families and individuals to educate them in health matters and how the NHS worked. The practice had been proactive in organising the service as an innotive way of meeting the needs of their patient population.
• The GPs and practice nurses arranged meetings for other clinicians in the area. These were used to share good practice, collectively discuss serious untoward incidents and significant events, and take part in training sessions as part of their continuing professional development (CPD).
• Patients with a learning disability, mental health needs or Dementia were invited for an annual review of their physical and mental health needs. Dual appointments with the GP and nurse were arranged and the clinicians used a template to identify all health needs and issues. This decreased the number of appointments required for the patients. They also involved the patients’ carers where appropriate and consent had been given so convenient appointments that were less likely to be missed were arranged.
• The nurse ran a drop in centre for students at the university. Any student could attend, including patients of other practices. Where appropriate patients were signposted to the most appropriate service, and their healthcare needs could be met by the nurse if possible. There was evidence of mental health issues being identified during these drop in sessions.
• A GP telephoned a care home every Friday to see if they had any concerns that required attention before the weekend. The home provided feedback to us, stating that a GP visited at least once a week, had a walk around to see any patient who required attention, and involved patients in their care planning.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice