Archived: The Medical Centre, Ridingleaze

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Medical Centre, Ridingleaze on 9 April 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services for older patients, those with long term conditions, people of working age, the recently retired and students. In addition it was good for

providing services for families children and young patients, patients whose circumstances make them vulnerable and patients with poor mental health including those with dementia.

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, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff were receiving 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 and easy to understand.
• 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 was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. It had identified that the premises were too small and had worked with other services and shared information with patients about plans to move to a more suitable building in the future.
• 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 practice manager had identified the need to motivate the patient participation group to be more active.

We saw an area of outstanding practice

• One of the GPs told us they carried out their own out of hours visits for patients receiving palliative care. They gave the patient or their carer their personal telephone number so they could contact the GP directly for support.

However, the practice should:

• Maintain a record of refrigerator temperatures to evidence that medicines were stored safely.
• Update the health and safety policy and keep it under review.
• Consider and disseminate relevant health and care guidance.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice