Following the recent completion of their latest round of telephone-based CQC inspections, a pair of practice managers have kindly shared their top findings and handy hints to help other PMs better prepare for the ordeal. Grab a hot drink (or something stronger), settle down and buckle up… Be prepared. You have the questions in advance,…

The Caring KLOE is the shortest of all key lines of enquiry, but arguably the one with most impact on the patients and their families/carers. It’s also the one where no practice will ever feel they fall short of 100% compliance. Experience leads those involved in inspections to recognise that a culture of caring is…

Practices need to be responsive to patient needs – both individual and collective – something that I’ll focus on in this article. A good question to start with is ‘are your policies designed to be responsive to patients with special needs, especially under Equality legislation?’ The Key Line of Enquiry (KLOE) includes some very direct…

Continuing our focus on CQC inspections and the key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), in this article we concentrate on the ‘effective’ element. The effective KLOE is all about being good at showing how the practice employs evidence-based outcomes that enable patients to experience a good quality of life. There’s also an underlying theme of making…

By now, it’s safe to assume that all practice managers know what a KLOE is. However, when it comes to dealing with the CQC, the real test is whether what you believe it means corresponds with what your CQC Inspection Team believes it is. From experience, the gap between the two can be a significant…