Background to this inspection
Updated
6 July 2017
Willow Bank Partnership Community Interest Company operates a General Practice from Meir Primary Care Centre in Stoke on Trent. The company is owned by the staff with a board of Directors and holds an Alternative Medical Provider Services contract with NHS England. Willow Bank operates two GP practices within Stoke on Trent:
Patients can use either site and are recorded as having a preferred practice. Each practice is currently registered separately with the Care Quality Commission. The provider has very recently submitted an application to remove the Longton registration and operate the practice as a branch location under the Meir registration. We visited both practices as part of our inspection. This report relates to our findings at Willow Bank Surgery, based within Meir Primary Care Centre.
At the time of the inspection 10,750 patients were currently registered of which 6,665 give their preferred practice as Meir location, although patients can be seen at either location. The practice population is not similar to the national average as it contains more patients aged 39 and under and less patients aged 50 and over. Deprivation in the locality is higher than both the clinical commissioning group (CCG) and national averages.
The practice is open seven days a week for both planned and urgent appointments and health promotion/screening.
The opening hours at Willow Bank Surgery are:
Patients can also access Willow Bank Health Centre at Longton. The opening hours at Willow Bank Surgery based within Meir Primary Care Centre are longer than the Longton practice.
The opening hours at Willow Bank Health Centre, Longton are:
Staff work across both sites and include:
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Nine GPs (six female, three male)
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Seven female registered nurses of which five work in extended and/or independent prescribing roles.
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Three female healthcare assistants.
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One practice clinical pharmacist.
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A management administrative and reception team of 22 staff led by the managing director assisted by a customer services manager.
Updated
6 July 2017
Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Willow Bank Partnership Community Interest Company (Also known as Willow Bank Surgery) on 4 August 2016. The overall rating for the practice was Good with requires improvement in providing safe services. The full comprehensive report from the 4 August 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Willow Bank Partnerships Interest Company (Willow Bank Surgery) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 21 June 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach in regulation that we identified in our previous inspection on 4 August 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is rated as Good.
Our key findings were as follows:
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The provider had enhanced their systems to receive and act on alerts about medicines that may affect patients’ safety.
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A written policy had been introduced for the identification and process of handling significant events.
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A process had been introduced for regularly reviewing Patient Group Directions (PGDs) to ensure that they met legislative requirements.
We also saw the following best practice recommendations we made at the previous inspection in relation to providing effective, caring and responsive services had been actioned:
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The provider had prioritised a plan and was working towards improving the uptake of annual health assessments for patients with a learning disability. Sixty percent of assessments had been completed since the last inspection and the remainder were scheduled to take place.
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The provider had carried out a detailed audit to investigate the reasons for the higher than average attendance at A&E by registered patients and was following up frequent attenders, reviewing and discussing ways that they can be supported.
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The provider had reviewed the reasons for lower patient satisfaction in the GP national survey for patient experience of their interaction with GPs.
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The provider had improved the documentation of complaint investigations and reviewed and process for obtaining patient consent for issues raised by a third party.
However, there was still an area of practice where the provider could make improvements.
The provider should:
Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)
Chief Inspector of General Practice
People with long term conditions
Updated
2 November 2016
The practice is rated as requires improvement for the care of people with long-term conditions.
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Patients with long-term conditions received condition reviews at appropriate intervals and performance was broadly in line with others.
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The practice had not provided care plans for the 2% of patients identified as at risk of unplanned admission to hospital, many of which had long-term conditions as it had committed to do.
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The practice had performed an initial audit into outcomes for patients with asthma and had identified areas for improvement. It was not clear what improvements measures had been implemented and a repeat audit had not been undertaken to demonstrate any improvements made had worked.
Families, children and young people
Updated
2 November 2016
The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.
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There was a proactive culture within the practice for identifying and monitoring children and young patients that were at increased risk of harm.
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The opening hours of the practice offered a breadth of opportunity for appointments outside school hours.
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We saw positive examples of joint working with midwives and health visitors.
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The practice’s uptake for the cervical screening programme was 81% compared with the CCG average of 80% and national average of 82%.
Updated
2 November 2016
The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.
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There were fewer patients in this population group than local and national averages.
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The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population.
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The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and urgent appointments for those with enhanced needs.
Working age people (including those recently retired and students)
Updated
2 November 2016
The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students).
People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia)
Updated
2 November 2016
The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).
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89% of patients with enduring poor mental health had a recent comprehensive care plan in place compared with the clinical commissioning group (CCG) average of 86% and national average of 88%.
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86% of patients with dementia had a face to face review of their condition in the last 12 months compared with the CCG average of 85% and national average of 84%.
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The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.
People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable
Updated
2 November 2016
The practice is rated as requires improvement for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.
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The practice provided an interpreter on a weekly basis to assist patients from a Slovakian background where English was not their first language.
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The practice had only provided 12% of patients with a learning disability with an annual health assessment. The national uptake of these assessments was around 50%.
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Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out-of-hours.