Background to this inspection
Updated
21 June 2019
The Witley Surgery, together with its branch site in Milford, cover a semi–rural area around the villages of Witley and Milford in the south west of Surrey. The main surgery site at Witley is purpose built and has five consulting rooms, a treatment room and dispensary. Milford Surgery has four consulting rooms and three treatment rooms. The practice is able to offer dispensing services to those patients on the practice list who live more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy.
The practice operates from:
Witley Surgery, Wheeler Lane, Witley, GU8 5QR
And
Milford Crossroads Surgery, Church Road, Milford, Surrey, GU8 5JD
There are approximately 11,200 patients registered at the practice. Statistics show very little income deprivation among the registered population and is within the least deprived decile nationally. The registered population is higher than the national average for those aged birth to 18 and lower than the national average for those aged 65 years of age and over.
Care and treatment is delivered by six GP partners and two salaried GPs. There are five female GPs and three male GPs. The nursing team consists of one nurse practitioner, two practice nurses, and a healthcare assistants. The practice is also supported by an administration team support by a deputy practice manager and a practice manager. There are seven members of dispensary staff. The practice is a training practice and regularly has GP trainees working in the practice.
The practice is open from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours are offered for pre-bookable appointments until 7:30pm on a Monday or Thursday and from 7:30am in the morning on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Patients can book appointments in person, by phone or online. The practice also undertakes telephone and online consultations.
The practice is also part of a hub of GP practices that offer evening appointments until 9pm and weekend appointments. These appointments are not run from the practice but from separate locations.
The practice uses ‘AskmyGP’ The service is open to all patients and is accessible 24 hours a day. Patients can request a telephone, face to face, video or email response with the GP of their choice (if available). Patients are responded to within working hours, 8am to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday
For information about practice services, opening times and appointments please visit their website at www.witleyandmilforddrs.co.uk.
Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the NHS GP out of hours service on telephone number 111.
The practice is registered to provide the following regulated activities:
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
- Family planning services
- Maternity and midwifery services
- Surgical procedures
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
Updated
21 June 2019
We had previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr. Wilks & Partners (also known as Witley & Milford Medical Partnership) in May 2018. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The practice was rated as requires improvement in safe and effective, good in responsive and well-led, and outstanding in caring. The full comprehensive report on the May 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr. Wilks & Partners on our website www.cqc.org.uk
At the May 2018 inspection we found that the provider had not:
- Ensured care and treatment was provided in a safe way to patients. In particular risk assessments and action plans in relation to Legionella, fire and health and safety.
- Ensured the management of medicines kept patients safe. In particular, in relation to the security of blank prescription stationery for use in computers, controlled drugs and emergency medicines.
- Ensured staff employed in the provision of regulated activities had received the appropriate training and professional development necessary to enable them to carry out their duties.
There were also areas where the provider should make improvements by:
- Reviewing their complaints procedure so that the information within this complies with the NHS complaints procedure.
We carried out an announced inspection at Witley & Milford Medical Partnership on 15 May 2019. This was to confirm the practice had carried out their plan to make the improvements required as identified at our previous inspection on 24 May 2018. We found that the practice had addressed all of the concerns previous found and was now compliant in all areas.
We have rated this practice as good overall and in all of the key questions. They have been rated as good overall for all population groups.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
We rated the practice good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care because:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
- There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
- Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles. There was a strong team ethos and culture of working together for a common aim.
We saw one area of outstanding practice: -
- The practice had installed an online general practitioner consultation platform ‘AskMyGP’. This meant that patients could contact the practice at any time of the day and request a video chat, a telephone appointment, a face to face appointment or an e-mail reply. If patients used this service during the working day all patients would be replied to in that day. If it was during out of hours the practice guaranteed a response the next working day. Requests would be reviewed and the appropriate response given. For example, GPs could decide that a face to face appointment would be more appropriate – which could be booked for the patient there and then. The practice was able to show us data which evidenced that over an eight-week period the practice had received 6,099 requests and that the average time to respond took 71 minutes. We were also able to see data that this had reduced the amount of patients calling for an appointment, had improved the time GPs could spend with patients and improved patient satisfaction.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Review the medicines policy to ensure all medicines not appropriate for a nomad tray are listed.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care