A Brighton doctors’ surgery has been graded good across the board after an inspection by the official government watchdog.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) praised the Albion Street Surgery, in Albion Street, Brighton, in a report published last week.
The GP surgery had tackled safety concerns raised at a previous inspection in November 2015 relating to fire risks and fire drills as well as doctors’ training in child protection.
In a seven-page report the chief inspector of general practice Steve Field said: “The practice is rated good overall and good for providing safe services.
“We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on (Tuesday) 17 November 2015.
“The overall rating for the practice was good. However, a breach of legal requirements was found during that inspection within the safe domain.
“After the comprehensive inspection, the practice sent us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements.”
Professor Field said: “We conducted a focused inspection on (Friday) 17 March 2017 to check that the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.
“During our previous inspection on 17 November 2015 we found the following area where the practice must improve
• Ensure that all GPs are trained to level three children’s safeguarding
• Ensure that a fire risk assessment, regular drills and fire training for staff are all carried out
“Our previous report also highlighted the following areas where the practice should improve
• Continue to improve the uptake of new patient and NHS health checks
• Continue to improve patient recall and reviews for patients with a learning disability and those living with long-term conditions
• Build on the work to demonstrate quality improvement by increasing the number of full cycle audits conducted within the practice
“During the inspection on (Friday) 17 March we found all clinical staff were now trained in children’s safeguarding level three (and) the practice conducted regular fire drills, fire training and fire risk assessments in accordance with practice policy.
“We also found the following in relation to the areas where the practice should improve.
“The practice was taking steps to improve the uptake of new patient and NHS health checks within the practice. Patients were sent a letter inviting them to attend and reminders about their appointments by text.
“The practice was taking steps to improve patient recall and reviews for patients with a learning disability and those living with long-term conditions.”
The CQC said that the surgery outperformed local and national scores for quality and outcomes measured by the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).
It recorded a QOF score of 97 per cent in 2015-16, compared with an average of 92 per cent locally and 95 per cent nationally. In 2014-15 the surgery’s score was 85 per cent.
Professor Field added: “The practice now had a policy in place to phone non-attenders which had improved uptake.”
The senior partner is Manas Sikdar. Dr Sikdar is a member of the governing body of the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
