Archived: GP Support Team

Updated 4 February 2019

The GP Support Team (GPST) is a registered location for services provided by BrisDoc Healthcare Services Limited www.brisdoc.co.uk. GPST was launched in the North Bristol Trust (NBT) in April 2015 and fully established by November 2015 in Southmead Hospital, Southmead Road, Bristol. BS10 5NB.

This service was commissioned to primarily support GP practices for adult only patients with urgent care needs during core hours in the Bristol and South Gloucestershire areas. Only patients who are registered with these GP practices can be referred by their GP, or community based clinicians working in these areas, to the service.

The service provides a primary care interface with secondary care; to identify patients who would be suitable to be seen by the service’s GPs in an ambulatory care setting and who did not necessarily need to be seen by the consultant-led hospital medical team, such as for an acute exacerbation of a long term condition. Referrals to the service is via a GP or other health care professional or the emergency department in the hospital.

The service supports the community GPs workload by giving them access to other medical expertise and hospital diagnostic services to potentially reduce hospital admissions. The impact for patients is a continuity of care provided by GPs, and priority access to diagnostic services and treatment which may prevent hospital admission.

The service also provides a single telephone support line (‘The Professional Line’) which GPs, advanced nurse practitioners and paramedics can call between 8am and 6.30pm (outside these times calls are directed to the Out of Hours service). Clinicians use this line to discuss treatment of patients at risk of admission to hospital. Based on these discussions the GPST gives clinical advice based on accepted guidance and pathways. Access to hospital consultants is also available for advice where appropriate.

The GPST operates five days a week from Monday to Friday between 8am and 8pm. Telephone calls for the service were handled by trained call handlers. The service employs 19 GPs (with three GPs on duty with the GPST daily), nine call handlers, a team leader and a service manager.

The headquarters of Brisdoc is based at Osprey Court, Hawkfield Way, Hawkfield Business Park, Whitchurch, Bristol where the majority of the administration and human resources tasks are coordinated from. During our inspection we visited the Osprey Court and the Southmead sites.

The provider is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening services
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

Updated 4 February 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 8 December 2016 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The GP Support Team on 27 November 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines. The service monitored care and treatment through peer sampling of patient records using the Clinical Guardian audit tool.
• Patient feedback indicated that staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs. The incorporation of nationally recognised assessment tools into triage and assessment ensured patients were appropriately prioritised according to individual needs and that only appropriate patients were accepted into the service
• Staff felt well supported by management in an open and transparent culture.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. Patient pathways developed in conjunction with secondary care were designed to optimise patient outcomes in a timely manner.

The areas where the provider should:

• Review systems to gain evidence, of impact from clinical audit and assurance that the processing of urgent referrals is effective.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice