Alverton Practice

We carried out an inspection of Alverton Practice on 26 September 2019 following our annual review of the information available to us, including information provided by the practice. Our review indicated that there may have been a significant change to the quality of care provided since the last inspection.

The practice was previously rated as Outstanding overall and for each domain with the exception of Safe and Caring which were rated as Good. Having now inspected all GP practices, we have a better understanding of the baseline; what we assessed as being outstanding previously, would not now be rated as outstanding. We inspected the provision of services against the current Key Lines of Enquiry and found the practice to be characteristic of good for providing Effective and Well-led services. The change from an Outstanding to a Good overall rating does not reflect a negative change in quality.

This inspection focused on the following key questions:

• Effective - Good
• Well-led - Good

Because of the assurance received from our review of information we carried forward the ratings for the following key questions:

• Safe – Good
• Caring – Good
• Responsive – Outstanding

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as Good for the provision of Effective and Well-led Services.

All population groups were rated as Good for the provision of Effective services. At our last inspection in January 2016, working age people and people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable were rated as Outstanding for Responsive services. Due to the weighting of these ratings working age people and people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable continue to be rated as Outstanding overall. All other population groups are rated as Good overall.

We found that:

• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The practice had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There was compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership at all levels.
• Managers were approachable and responsive to staff suggestions to promote positive change and outcomes for patients.
• The practice involved the public, staff and external partners to sustain high quality and sustainable care.

We found the following Outstanding features;

• In response to a reduction in community sexual health services for young people, the practice collaborated with a secondary school and secured funding to provide an in-reach sexual health service
• The practice hosted annual childhood immunisation clinic parties to improve uptake of childhood immunisations and had achieved between 93% and 96% for childhood immunisations Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicators.
• The practice provided flu immunisations for teachers at both secondary schools in the local town in 2018. Data showed staff absence had reduced by 46% compared to 2017.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Review overview systems of safety alerts received.
• Review overview systems of specialist training for clinicians.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care