We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Hadleigh Practice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about The Hadleigh Practice, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out a focused inspection of The Hadleigh Practice on 15 November 2016 to check whether the practice had made the improvements in providing care and services that were safe, effective and well-led. The practice was able to demonstrate that they had made the required improvements to meet the regulations. The practice is now rated as good for safe, effective and well-led services. The overall rating for the practice is now good.
We had previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Hadleigh Practice on 25 April 2016 when we rated the practice as requires improvement overall. The practice was rated as good for being caring and responsive and requires improvement for safe, effective and well-led. This was because blank prescriptions were not safely tracked by the practice and the practice had not acted on the recommendations of infection control audits. There were also gaps in the training which the practice considered necessary for staff and the security of clinical areas. During the 25 April 2016 inspection we found that fridge temperatures were being recorded, however when temperatures went out of the safe range for the storage of vaccines, this was not consistently acted upon. We also found that governance systems to adequately manage risks to patients and staff were not consistently followed through. Following our last inspection, we asked the provider to send a report of the changes they would make to comply with the regulations they were not meeting at that time. We received this on 22 August 2016. We revisited the practice on 15 November 2016 to check the improvements had been made.
Our key findings across the areas we inspected on 15 November 2016 were as follows:
This report should be read in conjunction with the full inspection report, which can be found at www.cqc.org.uk/
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Hadleigh Practice on 25 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as requires improvement.
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. However, the recording of outcomes arising from investigations of significant events was not always thorough enough to guarantee that learning had occurred.
Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive. Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. 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.
We saw an area of outstanding practice:
The practice had set up and ran a community ophthalmology service, dealing with eye problems such as glaucoma, external eye issues such as eyelid and conjunctival problems, assessment of cataracts and iritis but excluding conditions requiring surgical intervention or more specialist ongoing review ant treatment – such as macular degeneration, sudden loss of vision or cataract removal. The practice employed an optometrist and had purchased specialised equipment to provide screening and treatment for conditions such as glaucoma. One of the GP partners was dual qualified as an ophthalmologist. The aim of the service was to prevent patient referrals to hospital for specialist ophthalmology treatment and to provide care to patients in a local and familiar environment for them. The practice provided data for 2014-15 which showed the practice reduced its referral rate to hospital by 71%. The service is offered to patients throughout the locality.
However, there were areas of practice where the provider must make improvements:
Ensure staff receive the training required for them to carry out their roles. For example in basic life support, infection prevention control, fire safety and safeguarding.
Ensure recommendations from infection control audits are implemented.
Ensure the security of staff information and medicines, including vaccines and emergency medicines, stored within the practice.
Ensure that vaccines are consistently stored within the correct temperature range and that this is appropriately monitored.
Ensure that a system is developed to monitor the use of blank prescriptions.
Ensure that governance systems are robust. For example, the practice must review the system in place for handling significant events so that actions, who is responsible for the action and time frames for completion are clearly documented.
There were areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:
Proactively offer health checks for vulnerable patients, such as patients who are also carers and people with learning disabilities.
Review the use of curtains in consulting and treatment rooms to ensure patient dignity is protected at all times.
Chief Inspector of General Practice