Archived: Dr Bernard Newgrosh Also known as Great Lever One

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report of findings from our inspection of Great Lever One.

We undertook a planned, comprehensive inspection on 15 December 2014 and spoke with Dr Newgrosh, patients, four members of staff and the practice manager.

The practice required some improvements and is rated as requiring improvement overall.

Our key findings were as follows :-

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them
• Communication with patients, their families and carers, and access to the service and to the GP was excellent.
• The GP offered total open access on a first come first served basis.
• The practice created extra appointments to accommodate young families where possible and the GP spent a lot of time getting to know families in totality. He was aware of any issues within the family structure that might affect any of its members.
• The GP had been working single handed in the practice for the past twenty eight years without any management support. He had now employed a practice manager who was embedding policy and procedure and he was currently looking for a partner.

Importantly, the provider must:

• The provider must take action to ensure its recruitment arrangements are in line with Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and necessary employment checks are in place for all staff.

There were areas of practice where the provider needed to make improvements. The provider should:

• Fully embed policies and procedures such as infection control and ensure checks and risk assessments such as those for carrying medicines and prescriptions or relating to emergency equipment are rigorous enough to minimise error and ensure safety at all times.
• Ensure all staff receive training appropriate to their roles and identify and plan further training needs.
• Ensure there are systems in place to monitor quality and improvement and identify risk. Although patients were able to offer their opinion on the service whenever they wanted there were no formal surveys or questionnaires provided. The practice was not pro-active in asking patients for feedback.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice