9 August 2016
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
In January 2016 a comprehensive inspection of Great Western Surgery was conducted. The practice was rated as requires improvement for effective care and for patients with long term conditions. Overall the practice was rated as good. During that inspection we found that the provider was not adequately assessing, monitoring and improving the quality and safety of services provided. Although the practice achieved overall high scores on a national care monitoring tool, there were anomalies and some poor performance which was not investigated or accounted for, specifically for those with long term conditions. Clinical audit was not always used to identify where improvements were required or achieved.
We also asked the provider to review how cervical screening rates could be improved.
The report setting out the findings of the inspection was published in February 2016. Following the inspection we asked the practice to provide an action plan detailing how they would improve on the areas of concern.
We conducted a desk top review of the practice as part of a focused inspection of Great Western Surgery on 9 August 2016 to ensure the changes the practice told us they would make had been implemented and to apply an updated rating.
We found the practice had made significant improvements since our last inspection on 19 January 2016. At this inspection we rated the practice as good for providing effective services. The overall rating for the practice remains good. For this reason we have rated the location for the key question to which this related and the population group, people with long term conditions. This report should be read in conjunction with the full inspection report of 19 January 2016.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• Monitoring of patient care data had been significantly reviewed and was being monitored.
• Audits had been undertaken to identify where improvements were required or achieved. A programme of continuing audit and improvements was in place.
• T he practice had reviewed their systems and processes to increase their cervical screening rates.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice