Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Miller Practice on 14 October 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good. Within that overall rating the practice was rated as requires improvement for providing safe services. This was because it was not meeting legal requirements in relation to some aspects of:
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Learning from significant events and patient safety alerts.
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Legionella, hazardous substances, and fire safety.
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Pre employment checks on staff.
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Emergency medicines.
The full comprehensive report of the October 2016 inspection can be found at www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-542499627.
This inspection on 12 July 2017 was an announced focused inspection and was carried out to confirm that the practice had completed their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 14 October 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings were as follows:
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The practice had put in place systems that provided assurance that action taken in light of a significant event prevented reoccurrence of the event, and that the practice had acted on patient safety alerts.
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The practice was managing risks identified in its legionella and COSHH risk assessments. Legionella is a term for a particular bacterium which can contaminate water systems in buildings. The provider had put in place a fire safety policy.
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The practice had put in place a system to ensure all the information required in respect of persons employed by the practice was maintained for staff recruited since the last inspection. It had also completed DBS checks on all non-clinical staff and had photographic proof of identity on record for all staff.
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The practice had strengthened its system for maintaining the stock of emergency medicines.
The practice had also acted on recommendations we made at our previous inspection and implemented additional improvements:
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The practice had reviewed its systems for complaints documentation, for example it was taking care to include information about the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in all written responses to complaints.
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A system for staff appraisal had been implemented to formalise arrangements for identifying and meeting staff development needs.
At our previous inspection on 14 October 2016 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because actions following significant events and safety alerts were not being evaluated, not all risks to the health and safety of service users were being managed and mitigated, and there were gaps in the information the provider maintained in respect of some of the staff it employed. At this inspection we found these shortfalls had been remedied. Consequently, the practice is rated as good for providing safe services.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice