Archived: Market Harborough Minor Injury Unit

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Market Harborough Minor Injury Unit on 17th January 2017. We inspected the service provided by Market Harborough and Bosworth Partnership, Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm.

Overall Market Harborough Minor Injury Unit is rated as good.

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

• Market Harborough and Bosworth partnership had a governance framework in place with systems and processes in place to support the delivery of their strategy.

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Market Harborough Minor Injury Unit had an effective system in place to safeguard adults and children from abuse.
• Overall risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ care needs were assessed and delivered in a timely way according to need.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Market Harborough Minor Injury Unit worked proactively with other organisations and providers to develop services that supported alternatives to hospital admission where appropriate and improved the patient experience.
• The service had facilities which were well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
• The service proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Continue to embed the system for significant events and ensure meeting minutes include discussions and decisions made.

• Review the current triage protocol to ensure it provides staff with sufficient guidance when patients attend the minor injury unit.

• Ensure that audits carried out evidence where the improvements were made, implemented and monitored.

• Review the frequency of nurse meetings for clinical supervision to ensure they take place on a regular basis.

• Continue to monitor risk assessments undertaken by NHS Property Services to ensure the actions and remedial work has been carried out.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice