12 January 2016
During a routine inspection
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dove River Practice on 12 January 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
- Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report significant events. Information about safety alerts was reviewed and communicated to staff by the practice manager in a timely fashion.
- Risks to patients were assessed and well managed through practice meetings and collaborative discussions with the multi-disciplinary team.
- Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. This was kept under review by the practice which used audit as a way of to ensuring that patients received safe and effective care
- All members of the practice team had received an annual appraisal and had undertaken training appropriate to their roles, with any further training needs identified and supported by the practice.
- The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet people’s needs. For example; the practice met monthly with the community health to discuss and plan care for patients
- Results from a national survey and patients we spoke with told us doctors and nurses at the practice treated them 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 in the reception area and patients told us that they knew how to complain if they needed to.
- Urgent appointments were available on the day they were requested. However, patients said that they sometimes had to wait a long time to see their preferred GP
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- There was a clear leadership structure and staff told us they felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from patients, which it acted on. Staff appeared motivated to deliver high standards of care and there was evidence of team working throughout the practice
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice