26 November 2018
During a routine inspection
This practice is rated as Good overall.
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
Are services safe? – Requires Improvement
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? - Good
We carried out an announced inspection at Ettingshall Medical Centre on 26 November 2018 as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
- The practice did not have effective systems in place for the prescribing and monitoring of high risk medicines.
- The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
- The practice had systems to keep patients safe and safeguarded from the risk of abuse.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
- The practice had a structured approach for monitoring patients with long term conditions which ensured patients were offered a review of their care and treatment.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Patients found the appointment system easy to use, however they expressed concerns about the time it took to get through to the practice and the waiting time beyond their appointment to be seen at the practice.
- There was evidence of the systems and processes in place for continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
The areas where the provider must make improvements are:
- Care and treatment must be provided in a safe way for service users.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Ensure the prescribing practices of practice nurses who are non-medical prescribers are supervised and audited.
- Collect information in relation to the Accessible Information Standard (a requirement to make sure that patients and their carers can access and understand the information that they are given) at the point of registration and improve staff awareness of this standard.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.