After a routine, unannounced inspection in October, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that the Marlborough Medical Practice meets all the Commission’s five standards.
The standards the regulator checks when they inspect GPs’ surgeries are:
• Respecting and involving people who use [the] services
• Cooperating with other providers [of health care]• Safeguarding people who use [the] services from abuse
• Supporting [their] workers
• Assessing and monitoring the [surgery’s] quality of service provision
The CQC inspection report says the patients they met “were generally happy with the service they received”; “…the practice is fine…”; “I think it’s really good”.
“One patient said: ’When they put their mind to it they do really have some great personal touches’. Another patient said: ’I would definitely recommend them…I feel heard when I come here’.”
“Most people we talked to said they were usually able to get an appointment to suit them and understood how the appointment system worked.”
The report quotes the practice’s own 2012/13 survey that 92 per cent of those who completed the survey found it ‘fairly easy’ or ‘very easy’ to get through to someone on the phone. And regarding length of appointments 89 per cent said the GP was ‘good’ or ‘very good’ at giving them enough time.
The inspectors found that ‘staff were trained and supported to carry out their roles and responsibilities.’ They were pleased with the practice’s website which ‘provided information and allowed people to give feedback, order repeat medicines online, and see what services were offered.’
The report is particularly complimentary about the GPs skills at moving patients between different services – such as consultants and hospitals. “People we met said when they had been referred the transfer of care was made effectively…to the right person or department.”
There was also praise for the GPs work in the wider community with regular ‘ward rounds’ at local nursing homes.
Amidst the praise there were some ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’: “Although the staff we spoke to gave us confidence they would know what to do to safeguard a vulnerable adult who might be abused, they were not clear as to what makes an adult vulnerable.”
They found that GPs and nurses were not familiar with the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards – “a licence that may be granted by the local authority to temporarily deprive a person of their liberty for their own health or safety or that of others.”
Although the Marlborough Medical Practice got green ticks for all the five key standards, there was a pointed ticking-off for its failure to establish a Patient Participation Group: “It should comprise of a group of representative patients who are asked from time to time to provide the practice with feedback on the range and quality of services provided.”
This ticking off was introduced with some diplomatic, even gently reproving words: “The provider may find it useful to note the work with the local community to seek their views was not as well developed as it could be.”
“We were told by one of the partner GPs the practice wanted to do this ‘properly’ and ‘not just to tick a box’.” The inspectors’ summary notes that the practice ‘needed to improve the way it worked with people to hear their views and experiences.’
The report ends with a quotation from a patient regarding the absence of a Patient Participation Group: “…this is the only practice in town, so they need to know they are not being complacent…”
The CQC website has a feature that encourages you to tell the inspectors in confidence whether you agree or disagree with their report, or simply to state your concerns or compliments about the Marlborough Medical Practice. Go to this part of the CQC site and click on “Please tell us your experience of this service.”
Or you can go directly to the inspectors’ full report here.
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