Archived: Orchard Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Orchard Medical Centre on 21 January 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.
• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• All risks to patients were consistently assessed and well managed.
• 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.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to help ensure that they met people’s needs.
• Urgent appointments were available the same day and pre bookable appointments were available up to 12 weeks in advance.
• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• There was a business plan that was monitored, regularly reviewed and discussed with all staff. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the infection control audit, to ensure that actions taken to address issues raised are formally recorded.

• Review processes for communicating with patients when appointment times are running behind schedule.

• Revise how staff meetings are held within the practice, in order to include whole staff teams meetings, as well as revise how minutes of meetings are recorded, to help ensure that actions from previous meetings are discussed and documented.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice