Friarsgate Practice

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

We looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as Requires Improvement. At this assessment, the rating has changed to Good.

Staff managed medicines well and involved people in planning any changes to their care. The practice made improvements since the last inspection to address shortfalls in care to ensure patients were monitored appropriately to continue safe prescribing of their medicines.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The practice made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. They involved people in planning, including when changes happened. Where shortfalls were identified through scheduled searches within the clinical IT system, the practice acted promptly to ensure patients received the necessary monitoring.

Our remote clinical searches identified patients received recommended medicine reviews and monitoring in line with national guidelines. Following our previous assessment, the practice had implemented a dedicated medicines management team who provided effective oversight to ensure patients were monitored to continue safe prescribing of medicines. We found there were robust processes in place, including appropriate coding, changes to recall systems, and ensuring that clinical meetings took place to review protocols and training needs.

Staff involved people in reviews of their medicines and helped them understand how to manage their medicines safely. People knew what to do and who to contact if their condition did not improve or they experienced any unexpected symptoms. Staff received regular training, were competency assessed on medicines optimisation, and felt confident in managing the storage, administration and recording of medicines. Our clinical searches identified that patients prescribed medicines that require monitoring, including disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and Aldosterone (a diuretic medicine used for cardiac conditions), had received appropriate monitoring. For example, we saw that 99 patients prescribed Aldosterone had all received appropriate monitoring. There were effective supervision processes in place for non-medical prescribers.