Archived: Summerfield Healthcare

Updated 30 July 2018

Summerfield Health care is an organisation registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The organisation has two locations. The main location Summerfield Healthcare (Wolverhampton) is located on the outskirts of Wolverhampton city centre at 8 Summerfield Road, Wolverhampton WV1 4PR. The branch practice Summerfield Healthcare (Shrewsbury) is situated at Shrewsbury Building 1 Charlesworth-Court, Knights Way, Battlefield Enterprise Park Shrewsbury SY1 3AB. We only visited Summerfield Healthcare (Wolverhampton) as part of this inspection.

Summerfield Healthcare provides consulting rooms, which are hired out by verified visiting healthcare professionals for the purpose of treatment of disease, disorder or injury. Consultants working at Summerfield Healthcare work under practising privileges. Accommodation and administrative services are provided to healthcare practitioners to provide the following services:

• Occupational health
• GP consultations
• Physiotherapy
• Paediatric consultations
• Psychiatry
• Psychological interventions,
• Minor procedures

Practising privileges is a process within independent healthcare. Practising privileges grants a medical practitioner or other staff such as a specialist nurse or therapist permission to work in an independent hospital or clinic, independent private practice, or within the provision of community services.

The clinical staff team consists of eight GPs, one rheumatology consultant, two paediatric consultants, a general surgeon, a registered mental health nurse and a health care assistant. Clinical staff are supported by administration and reception staff.

We inspected Summerfield Health care (Wolverhampton) on 24 May 2018 as part of our inspection programme. Our inspection team was led by a Care Quality Commission (CQC) Lead Inspector. The team included a GP specialist adviser and practice manager specialist advisor.

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we held about the service and asked the service to send us a range of information. This included information about the complaints received in the last 12 months and the details of their staff members, their qualifications and training. Summerfield Healthcare also provided information on the day of the inspection that included policies, audits and risk assessments. We sent patient comment cards two weeks prior to the inspection to gain feedback from patients. We spoke with staff from the service that included the provider, lead nurse/registered manager and administration staff.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 30 July 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 24 May 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Summerfield Healthcare (Wolverhampton) is the main location for Ryminster Medical Services Limited. A branch site is located in Shrewsbury. The services provided from both locations are occupational health, GP consultations, physiotherapy, paediatric consultations, psychiatry, psychology and minor procedures.

The practice manager is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We gained feedback through two comment cards completed by patients. Comments made were universally positive; the service was described as excellent and helpful with positive comments on the friendliness of staff.

Our key findings were:

• There were effective systems in place for monitoring and managing risks to patient and staff safety.
• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care and treatment was tailored to individual needs and delivered in line with current evidence based guidance such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
• Patients’ were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Patients received detailed and clear information about their proposed treatment, which enabled them to make an informed decision. This included the costs, risks and benefit of the treatment.
• The service had a structured programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
• There was effective leadership, management and governance arrangements in place that assured the delivery of high quality care and treatment. The practice held a central register of policies and procedures to govern activity.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the ‘Duty of Candour’.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the arrangements for the ongoing maintenance of all equipment used at the practice to ensure they are safe to use.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice