Background to this inspection
Updated
20 November 2018
The Village Surgery is located in the London Borough of Barnet within the NHS Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group. The practice holds a Personal Medical Services contract (an agreement between NHS England and general practices for delivering primary care services to local communities). The practice has a patient list size of 5,200 and provides a full range of enhanced services including childhood immunisation and vaccination, extended hours access, dementia support, influenza and pneumococcal immunisations, and shingles immunisation.
The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the regulated activities of maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures.
The clinical team at the practice included two GP Partners (one female, one male), two female salaried GPs and one practice nurse (female). The non-clinical team at the practice included one business manager, one practice manager and nine administrative staff.
The practice is open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 6.00pm. Phone lines closed daily between 1pm and 2pm and were covered by an out of hour’s service during this time. The surgery closes one Wednesday per month between 1pm and 4pm for a practice meeting and staff training. The practice is covered by an out of hour’s service during this time.
Urgent appointments are available each day and GPs also provide telephone consultations for patients. An out of hour’s service is provided for patients when the practice is closed. Information about the out of hour’s service is provided to patients on the practice website and the practice phone system.
Updated
20 November 2018
This comprehensive inspection was undertaken on 13 September 2018 following a period of special measures, the practice is now rated as good. (Previous rating December 2017 – Inadequate)
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
We had previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Village Surgery on 13 December 2017. Overall the practice was rated as inadequate and placed in special measures. We identified concerns with regards to safe and well-led care provided by the practice.
We served a Warning Notice under regulation 17 (Good Governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The report for the comprehensive inspection can be found by selecting the ‘reports’ link for The Village Surgery on our website at: .
The practice sent us a plan of action outlining how it would become compliant with the requirements of the regulations. We undertook a focussed inspection on 19 June 2018 to review the breaches of regulation identified at the inspection in December 2017 and to ensure the service had made improvements. At the focussed inspection we found that the practice was compliant with the regulatory breaches we had identified at the comprehensive inspection in December 2017. The report for the focussed inspection can be found by selecting the ‘reports’ link for The Village Surgery on our website at: .
This report relates to the follow up comprehensive inspection carried out on 13 September 2018. At this inspection we found that the practice had sustained the improvements we had noted at our focussed inspection in June 2018.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- There was a comprehensive system in place to ensure the safe management of high risk medicines.
- Improvements to governance systems had been made. For example, the practice was able to provide evidence that processes for managing pathology results and patient safety alerts were improved and staff were adhering to the improved protocols.
- Systems for managing staff training and induction were significantly improved.
- Patient feedback was significantly above the local and national averages.
- There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
- There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- Information about services and how to complain was available. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
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