Archived: Fir Park Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Appleton Village Surgery on 6 January 2016. Breaches of legal requirements were found. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to Regulation 15 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 premises and equipment.

We undertook this focused inspection on the 6 July 2016 to check that they had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the requirement and issues identified in the previous report. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Appleton Village Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings were:

The practice had addressed the breaches of regulations and other issues identified during the previous inspection and made improvements including:

• Completed all electrical installation remedial work to ensure the premises were safe.
• A new protocol and monitoring system in place for emergency medications carried in GPs’ bags.
• Updated control of substances hazardous to health risk assessments and had ensured all containers for substances were clearly labelled.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Appleton Village Surgery on 6 January 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good but requires improvement for providing safe services.

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

• The practice operates from old residential buildings. The practice was aware of the limitations of the premises such as disabled access for some parts of the building and the need for some remedial work and extra rooms. The practice was in the process of deciding whether to move premises or renovate the existing site.

• The practice had closed its list to new patients from December 2014.

• The practice operated a triage system for all calls, at any time of the day, before appointments were made.Patients were called back by a clinician to discuss their symptoms. If necessary an appointment was made that was tailored to the individual patient’s needs.

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation.

• 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. The practice sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service; including carrying out surveys and having a patient participation group (PPG) and acted, where possible, on feedback.

• Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

The areas where the provider must make improvement are:

• Complete any remedial work to ensure the electrical safety of the building.

• Revisit risk assessments for the control of substances hazardous to health.

• Monitor emergency medication stored in GP bags for expiry dates.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Display information for patients about: opening times, appointment times, GPs available, arrangements for new patients and emergency contacts outside of the building.

• Have a building plan, which includes the identification of any explosive materials stored, at the entrances of the building for use by the emergency services.

• If the provider is to stay in the premises, to carry out a full survey of the premises to check the premises meets all health and safety regulations and act on any recommendations during refurbishment.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice