08 December 2015
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out a comprehensive inspection at Blyth’s Meadow Surgery on 13 February 2015. The practice was rated as good overall and in particular rated as good for effective, caring, responsive, well-led services and requires improvement for safe service.
During the inspection on 13 February 2015 we found that;
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The practice did not have safe medicine management procedures.
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They did not have robust controlled drugs stock control.
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No controlled drugs disposal arrangements.
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They did not follow the practice policy for the safe disposal of medication.
The practice were issued with a requirement notice for improvement.
There were also areas we told the practice they should address to improve safety.
We found:
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Risks to patients were not assessed appropriately or recorded.
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Complaints were not being reviewed to detect recurrent themes or trends.
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Meeting minutes were not recorded or made available to staff members.
Following the previous inspection the practice sent us information about the actions they would take and when they would be implemented.
We then carried out a focused inspection at Blyth’s Meadow Surgery 08 December 2015 to follow-up on our previous inspection and to ensure that the practice had made the required improvements.
Our key findings during this focused follow-up inspection were as follows:
- The practice had reviewed medicine management procedures and implemented changes that were effective.
- Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
- Complaints were reviewed to detect themes and trends.
- Minutes of meetings were recorded and made available to staff.
We were therefore satisfied that the provider had made all of the improvements identified as a result of the inspection on 13 February 2015.
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice