Holland House Surgery

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Holland House Surgery, Victoria Street, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire FY8 5DZ on 16 January 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes, working with other local providers to share best practice. For example; all staff were dementia friends. The practice worked closely with the Alzheimer’s society and other organisations to support patients and their carers. For example, the practice staff took part in a dementia sing-a-long and a dementia walk to raise awareness of the condition and raise funds. The patient participation group (PPG) were proactive in providing training for staff and patients to become dementia friends at the time of the inspection there were 503 dementia friends linked to the practice and the local community.

Where patients living with a learning disability were anxious about going to the GPs they were able to go into the practice as often as they wished to sit and familiarise themselves with the activities and sounds associated with the waiting room within the practice. Staff at the practice told us this had worked well to reduce the patients anxiety.

The practice employed a musculoskeletal (MSK) practitioner who specialised in assessing acute injuries with the aim of preventing them becoming longterm. The MSK practitioner also supported patients with chronic health conditions to help them to minimise the use of medicines.

There was an on site x-ray facility which provided same day access and reduced the need for patients to travel to the hospital.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Improve the recording of significant events to demonstrate actions and learning and to identify trends more easily.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice