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Glemsford Surgery achieves 'Good' rating
The kindness and respect shown to patients by staff at Glemsford GP surgery has been noted in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report that gave the surgery a rating of ‘Good’ overall. This surgery is part of our Trust.
The CQC visited the surgery earlier in the year and its report was recently published. In four categories – are services effective; caring; responsive to people’s needs and well-led – the surgery was rated ‘Good’. In the category are services safe? it was rated as ‘requiring improvement’.
The findings of the report concluded that:
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care
- The practice respected patients’ privacy and dignity and patient confidentiality was maintained throughout
- The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic; patients could access care and treatment in a timely way
- The practice had effective systems to ensure all emergency medicines and equipment were safe to use
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care, however, some systems and processes introduced during or following the inspection needed to be embedded.
The report flagged concerns around:
- The recording of safeguarding alerts on some patient records
- A process to review historical Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts effectively
- Some patients taking high risk medicines lacked consistent monitoring
- Some patients had potential missed diagnosis of diabetes and chronic kidney disease
- Some blood test results used when reviewing and monitoring some patients with long term conditions were out of date
- Staff competency monitoring was carried out on a daily basis; however, this was not formally documented, and lacked the clinical oversight to ensure high risk drug monitoring was effective.
The CQC found a breach of regulations, leading to the requirement that: “The provider must: establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.”
Surgery service manager Sinead Collins said: “Much work is already taking place to improve the surgery’s systems and processes to meet the required governance and ensure they do not fall below the fundamental standards of care.”
The improvement programme includes:
- Safeguarding recording process
- The MHRA/Central Alerting System alert oversight process
- High-risk drug monitoring audit system
- Supervision of non-medical prescribers.
Sinead said: “We are working with the Trust’s quality improvement team to involve these actions and other feedback into an overall improvement plan for the practice.
“The team at the surgery has been boosted this year, with a new practice nurse and a new GP. The work of an occupational therapist who joined last year to support patients with mental health needs continues to be well received. In addition, there is support with specialist roles shared between surgeries in the Primary Care Network (PCN) in the area.”
Our patient engagement team, and senior staff from the Trust, surgery colleagues recently held an open day at Glemsford Social Club. It was well attended by local people who shared their views, heard about improvements being made, and accessed information about looking after their own health.
The surgery is also working to relaunch its Patient Participation Group (PPG). Sinead said: “We would like to thank people for their interest so far and would be grateful to hear from more people who would like to take part, so we can get their views on future developments at the surgery.”
Glemsford Surgery integrated with us in summer 2020. This means that the Trust supports the surgery, for example with its buildings and facilities, human resources and finance staff.
The Trust’s interim chief executive Craig Black said: “We welcome this report into Glemsford Surgery and the generally positive findings, which are a testament to the commitment of everyone who works at the practice and the other Trust colleagues who support them. The comments about the way our Glemsford colleagues treat patients with dignity, kindness and respect are in line with putting patients first, which is central to what we want to achieve for our community. The findings include issues we need to address, and we have taken these on board and are committed to continue making those improvements.”
Clinical lead GP Dr Melissa Williams said: “We are very pleased by the positive CQC report, that has come after such a tumultuous time for both the surgery, and the country. It reflects the hard work and strength of the Glemsford team. We have welcomed the CQC's comments on where we can improve and have already implemented an action plan so we can be as safe and effective as possible for our patients going forward.”
The CQC report can be accessed here.
Contact details for Glemsford Surgery can be found here.
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