Washway Road Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Washway Road Medical Practice on 19 February 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed with exception of a risk associated with the duty doctor role.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• The practice participated in the Trafford Care Co-ordination Service supporting patients admitted and discharged from hospital, sharing relevant information, and ensuring patients received appropriate follow up care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment, but not with a named GP. Urgent appointments were available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on and the provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

• The practice regularly supported national campaigns. In January 2016 they promoted cervical cancer prevention, highlighting and encouraging females to attend screenings and in February they were supporting the British Heart Foundation’s Beat it campaign encouraging patients to give up smoking.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice:

• The partners at the practice were instrumental in education within the practice and throughout the Clinical Commissioning Group.For example, one of the partners had been the education lead for Trafford CCG since 2009 and had in that time implemented the quarterly Trafford-wide education event which offered an opportunity for clinicians and practice managers to stay informed and up to date with current practice and policy. They also hosted the GP forum which was a monthly clinical meeting with guest speakers and educational debates.

• The staff at the practice demonstrated evidence where they had gone over and above requirements on occasions and perceived these examples to be part of their everyday core services such as helping vulnerable patients and creating leaflets, booklets and information packs to improve patient knowledge/self-help and fundraising. They were the only people to attend the funeral of a patient who lived alone with no relatives.

We also saw areas where the practice should improve :

• Audits did not always demonstrate improvement. Performance for some of the QoF indicators remained lower than the national average despite identification and increased prevalence in these areas.In particular these related to diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and asthma related indicators where there were large variations compared to the national averages.

• Nursing staff responsible for patients with long term conditions such as those mentioned above did not cross cover.

• Most risks to patients were assessed and well managed. However significant events had identified that the role of the duty doctor required further review to establish whether it was necessary to reduce workload and increase patient safety.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice