Archived: Dr Datta and Partners

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Datta and partner on 14 July 2015.

Overall the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Specifically, we found the practice to require improvement for providing safe, and well led services. The concerns which led to these ratings apply to everyone using the practice, including all population groups. Therefore it also required improvement for providing services for the older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), those people whose circumstances make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). It was good for providing a caring and effective and responsive service.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, but was not monitored and reviewed appropriately.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of those relating to recruitment checks, emergency equipment and medicines.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• 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, but was not left accessible to patients in the waiting area.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, most of these were in date but some required inclusion of dates. The practice did not hold regular governance meetings and issues were discussed at ad hoc meetings.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure staff are appropriately trained to carry out chaperone duties.
• Ensure that all staff who carry out chaperone duties have a DBS check.
• Ensure that all clinical staff have a DBS check undertaken by the practice and reception and administration staff are risk assessed.
• Ensure that the systems and procedures for checking and monitoring emergency drugs and equipment are monitored to determine they are effective.
• Ensure that emergency equipment is stored in a safe place accessible to all staff in an emergency.
• Ensure that all staff have regular appraisal with documented outcomes.
• Ensure that all required pre-employment checks are carried out and recorded in staff files.
• Ensure that a system is introduced to track prescription pads used for hand written prescriptions.
• Ensure a means of reviewing and mitigating and recording all risks in the practice.

Action the provider SHOULD take to improve:

• Introduce notifications in the waiting area to inform patients that interpreters are available.
• Ensure the practice zero tolerance poster is in a place which can be easily viewed by all patients
• Ensure that the complaints procedure is advertised in the practice for patients to see.
• Ensure that all complaints and comments are formally recorded and reviewed and shared with all staff.
• Ensure that each room has a cleaning schedule to demonstrate daily cleaning by clinical staff.
• Introduce an inventory of medicines kept at the practice
• Introduce measures to encourage patients to stand back from the reception desk when other patients are being seen.
• Advertise to patients the facility to speak to a member of reception staff in private.
• Review policies and procedures so they reflect current practice.
• Ensure that all staff undertake the equity and diversity training available to them.
• Ensure that up to date patient group directives (PGDs) are available in the practice.
• Ensure that vision for the future development of the practice is formally shared with staff.
• Ensure that all significant events are captured and recorded formally to enable review and shared learning.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice