Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Abbey Road Surgery on 27 September 2016. Overall the rating for the practice was inadequate; specifically it was rated inadequate for providing safe and well-led services, requires improvement for providing caring and responsive services and good for providing an effective service. As a result, the practice was placed into special measures for a period of six months.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Abbey Road Surgery on 25 May 2017. Overall the rating for the practice was requires improvement; specifically it was rated as inadequate for safe services, requires improvement for responsive and well-led services and good for providing an effective and caring service. The practice remained in special measures for a period of six months.
The full comprehensive reports on the September 2016 and May 2017 inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abbey Road Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was an announced comprehensive inspection carried out on 11 January 2018 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach in regulation that we identified in our previous inspection on 25 May 2017. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is now rated as Good.
The key questions are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? – Good
As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:
Older People – Good
People with long-term conditions – Good
Families, children and young people – Good
Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good
People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good
People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good
At this inspection we found:
- The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
- The practice had systems to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from the risk of abuse. Staff demonstrated that they understood their responsibilities.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
- Staff worked with other health and social care professionals to deliver effective care and treatment.
- Staff treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
- Governance structures, systems and processes were effective and enabled the provider to identify, assess and mitigate risks to patients, staff and others.
- There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Continue to review the national GP patient survey results and ensure steps are taken to make improvements where required.
- Continue to encourage patient attendance at cancer screening programmes.
I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements made to the quality of care provided by the service.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice