Archived: The Surgery - Foden Street

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Surgery – Foden Street on 23 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as requires improvement

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• 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.

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses.

• The practice did not undertake all of the necessary checks required when recruiting staff.

• Staff assessed the risks of infection control, although had not always acted on the risks identified.

• The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, but some were overdue a review.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure recruitment checks for staff meet legislative requirements.
• Implement a consistent and effective system to receive and act on medicines alerts.
• Mitigate the risks identified in infection prevention and control audits.
• Implement a system to detail and record the checks undertaken on emergency equipment.
• Ensure that accurate records are kept of staff members’ suitability for employment and have oversight of the training they have undertaken.
• Provide all staff with appraisals.
• Review the policies and procedures in use, to ensure they are up to date and reflect the environment in which they operate.

In addition the provider should:

• Follow a consistent method of recording the stages of reporting, investigating and learning from significant events.

• Provide all staff with training in safeguarding vulnerable adults

• Review the computerised records of children identified at increased risk of harm to ensure they contain relevant and up to date information about safeguarding concerns.

• Consider the implementation of guidance issued by Public Health England on the storage of vaccines. In particular consideration of ensuring power to the vaccine fridge is not accidentally interrupted.

• Improve storage and handling of blank prescription forms to reflect nationally accepted guidance as detailed in NHS Protect Security of prescription forms guidance.

• Ensure that patients, visitors and staff are protected from the risk of water borne infection by means of completing a legionella risk assessment.

• Improve the availability of emergency medicine to include medicines to treat prolonged convulsions (fitting).

• Promote the availability of national cancer screening programmes.

• Improve the availability of appointments with a practice nurse.

• Consider the introduction of online booking of appointments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice