Background to this inspection
Updated
12 March 2019
Westcotes Health Centre, also known as Westcotes Medical Practice, is situated in a purpose-built health centre on Fosse Road South, Leicester at LE3 0LP. All clinical and patient areas are accessible to patients with disabilities and those who use wheelchairs. The surgery has good transport links and there is a pharmacy located in the same building. Information on services offered can be found on the practice website at .
The practice delivers services under an Alternative Provider Medical Services contract (APMS) to approximately 6,434 patients who reside in Leicester City and surrounding areas and is part of the Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). An APMS contract is provided under directions of the Secretary of State for Health and can be used to commission primary medical services from GP practices as well as other types of service providers.
Westcotes Health Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of; the treatment of disease, disorder and injury; diagnostic and screening procedures; maternity and midwifery services; family planning and surgical procedures.
The practice is staffed by five GP partners (three male, two female), two practice nurses, one health care assistant (HCA), and a team of six reception and administration staff who are all supported by a practice manager.
The practice has a higher than average population of patients between the ages of 25-40 years of age (30%) compared to the national average of 22%. Only 10% of the patient population are aged over 65 compared to the national average of 17%. There are 42% of the patient population with a long-standing health condition which is lower than the clinical commissioning group (CCG) average of 46% and the national average of 51%.
Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as three on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.
When the practice is closed patients are able to use the NHS 111 out of hour’s service.
Updated
12 March 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Westcotes Health Centre on 17 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme to see whether the breaches we identified at our previous inspection on 15 November 2016 had been addressed.
At the last inspection in November 2016 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:
- The practice did not have systems in place to properly assess and mitigate against risks associated with infection prevention and control.
- The practice did not have an effective process in place for reporting recording, acting on and monitoring significant events, incidents and near misses.
At this inspection, we found that the provider had addressed these breaches of regulations.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Review the protocol for staff removing items of post without sight of a GP.
- Improve the monitoring of loose prescriptions allocated to specific printers.
- Introduce an ongoing summary of significant events to better identify trends and review actions taken as a result of incidents.
- Continue to improve the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice