It’s just another day in the office and as usual you’re ploughing your way through an abundance of emails and letters whilst taking yet another phone call. The workload continues to increase and you’re prioritising effectively, ensuring that what needs to be done is getting done; that’s what being a manager is all about, and that’s why you’re good at it! But what could stop you in your tracks? What could make you review all those tasks and say out loud, “They’ll just have to wait!”

Well, maybe it’s the partner who has just walked in and handed you a notification letter from the CQC, which states that they’ll be conducting a comprehensive inspection in two weeks’ time! Now, if you had a big red button labelled ‘panic alarm’, I wonder just how many people would hit it there and then? Or maybe your immediate action would be to use a three-lettered abbreviation that has two Fs and an S?

Well, before you hit ‘panic’ or scream out loud, consider option three… which is to use the guidance document I’ve written to help you prepare for your inspection – before you even get the notification letter handed to you. And breathe, take a seat, reach for the coffee, and have a look at the CQC Guidance document.

Wouldn’t it be really useful to know what information the CQC may request before they ask for it? Well, you’ll have that covered! Good job really, considering they only give you five days to send it to them. They can ask for summaries of patient complaints and adverse events, evidence of QI, policies, matrices, the results of patient surveys and actions taken, and your statement of purpose. But you can relax; you’re ahead of the game and have this information on standby.

One down, many more to go! The inspecting team will want to look at many things from SEAs to minutes of meetings, along with your policies. But once more, you’ll be prepared as Annex A of the guidance document lists the policies the inspection team may ask to see (all are hyperlinked to Practice Index policies). Whilst this list is not exhaustive, it’s certainly a very good indicator and starting point for your preparation.

If your partners haven’t delivered a presentation in a while, now is the time to start practising. One of the first things they’ll be asked to do is deliver a 30-minute presentation to the inspecting team when they arrive at your practice. There is no set format, but to help, you’ll see in the guidance document a link to the BMA who have provided some useful information about making the presentation.

That’s three down! Here’s another: Annex B of the document provides a useful checklist to enable you and your team to prepare the practice for inspection. Again, it’s not exhaustive but comprehensive enough to get your practice ready for inspection and it will certainly get you thinking about what you need to do.

Four down! Now for a subject that has initiated many debates – training. It’s rather odd that the CQC don’t have a list of mandatory training for general practice, and yes, I agree that all practices are different, but there are training requirements which we all must complete. Have a look at the Staff Development Policy which includes a training matrix.

If it’s more information you’re after, the guidance document also provides links to various sources of information including ‘Nigel’s surgery’ and his mythbusters for general practice, which is definitely worth looking at.

Well, that’s the guidance document summarised. It’s over to you now, so have a look at the document and the many linked policies, all of which should prove useful in your quest to achieve success during a CQC inspection. It would be great to have some feedback about the guidance and also whether more policies need to be added to the list based on your experiences with the CQC. I look forward to your comments.