Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Lakeside Surgery on 12 May 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing caring, responsive and effective services and for being well led. It was also good for providing services for the following population groups older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable, people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). It required improvement for providing safe services.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks such as safeguarding.
- Serious events were analysed and individual clinicians identified learning outcomes to improve their practice. However there was no formal system in place to collectively discuss significant events and to ensure learning outcomes and changes in practice were shared practice wide.
- The premises were clean and tidy.
- Systems were in place to ensure medication including vaccines were appropriately stored and in date.
- Patients had their needs assessed in line with current guidance and the practice had a holistic approach to patient care.
- Feedback from patients and observations throughout our inspection highlighted the staff were kind, caring and helpful.
- The practice was responsive and acted on patient complaints and feedback.
- The staff worked well together as a team.
However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Importantly, the provider must:
- Ensure recruitment arrangements include all necessary employment checks for all staff.
- Ensure that action is taken to assess the safety of the electrical installation of the building.
In addition the provider should:
- Ensure that administration and reception staff are provided with Mental Capacity Act 2005 training to support them in their roles.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice