Archived: Sutherland Lodge Surgery

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sutherland Lodge Surgery on 14 October 2015. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.

• There was a strong commitment to providing co-ordinated, responsive and compassionate care for patients, particularly people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) and older people who are frail and at risk of memory loss.

• Information about services and how to complain was available. The practice actively sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service and worked with the Patient Participation Group (PPG) to do this.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice proactively sought to educate their patients to manage their medical conditions and improve their lifestyles. Additional in house services were available and delivered by staff with advanced qualifications, skills and experience.
• The practice used audits and had shared information from one of their audits with other practices to promote better patient outcomes.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. A business plan was in place, monitored and regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice employed a mental health nurse that worked collaboratively with the GPs to develop mental health care plans. She held her own patient lists that were patients that had been referred to her by the GP. Patients could be referred directly into the mental health services, signed posted to support groups and receive support from the practice.

• The practice carried out a bi-monthly skin clinic ran by a GP with a diploma in dermatology. This GP liaises closely with the local Dermatology consultant and has reduced the number of hospital referrals by being able it identify and treat minor symptoms locally. Data showed that the practice referral rates to hospital were lower than national and CCG averages for skin legions.

• The practice used a form called ‘for you about you’; this contained information that is useful for other medical professions and contained the patient’s medical history as well as their thoughts and wishes about the level of care they wanted to receive.

• The practice provided training and teaching to medical students and GP trainees, they also offered a placement to student nurses.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice