Archived: Abbey Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

Following an announced comprehensive inspection of Abbey Practice in November 2015, the practice was given an overall rating of good with requires improvement for providing safe services.

At our previous inspection we identified concerns relating to recruitment checks and the use of patient specific direction (PSD). A Patient Specific Direction is the written instruction, signed by a doctor, for medicines to be administered to a named patient after the patient has been assessed on an individual basis.

After the comprehensive inspection, the practice wrote and provided an action plan to tell us what they would do in respect of our inspection report findings and to meet legal requirements. We undertook this focused inspection on 12 July 2016 to check that they had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements. Overall the practice is rated as good following this inspection.

Our previous inspection in November 2015 found the following areas where the practice must improve:

• Ensure recruitment arrangements include all necessary employment checks for all staff, and that Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Checks have been completed for those staff who undertake chaperone duties
• Ensure Person Specific Directions (PSD) are in place for the health care assistant.

We also identified some areas in which the practice should improve:

• Ensure the annual appraisal process is robust so that all staff have annual appraisals. At this inspection we saw evidence that all staff had received an appraisal within the last twelve months and that there was a planned schedule for future appraisals.
• Ensure that lessons learnt from significant events are communicated to the appropriate staff to support improvement. At this inspection we saw evidence that there was a clear system in place for recording and investigating significant events and that this learning was shared widely enough to support improvement.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Our key findings across the areas we inspected for this focused inspection were as follows:

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed including recruitment checks.
• The practice had a robust system in place for the use of PSDs.
• There was a system in place for staff appraisals.
• The practice had a clear process for the recording and investigation of significant events and this learning was shared widely enough to support improvement.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice