Archived: Waltham Road Medical Centre

Updated 29 October 2015

The Waltham Road Medical Centre is a GP practice located in an urban area of Gillingham, Kent and provides care for approximately 1,600 patients. The practice has more than twice the national average of patients over 75 and over 85 years of age. The number of people in the area who claim disability allowance is significantly higher than the national average.

There are two GP partners, one male and one female. There is a female practice nurse. The practice has a general medical services (GMS) contract with NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities. The practice is not a training practice.

Services are delivered from the central surgery at

The Medical Centre,

4a, Waltham Rd,

Gillingham, Kent,

ME8 6XQ.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. There is information available to patients on how to access out- of- hours care.

Updated 29 October 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a desktop review of Waltham Road Medical Centre on the 21 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe services.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

At our inspection of 11 December 2014 we found the practice had a system for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events, incidents and accidents, but it did not always operate well. At our desk top review on 21 August we saw that there was a new significant events policy. This had led to more events being reported by staff. The events had been discussed and action taken to reduce the risk of similar events happening in the future.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as requires improvement for the care of people with long-term conditions. Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. These patients had a named GP, however some of these patients were not receiving structured annual reviews to check that their health and care needs were being met.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk. For example, children and young people who had a high number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances. Immunisation rates were exceptionally high for all standard childhood immunisations. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older patients in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older patients, and offered home visits and priority appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs for this age group.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). All of the patients who experienced poor mental health had received an annual physical health check. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. It carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia and 80% of patients diagnosed with dementia had had a face to face review of care during the preceding 12 months.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances such as homeless people, travellers and those with a learning disability. It had applied to carry out an enhanced service for patients with a learning disability but this had been declined because there were not enough patients within the practice with a learning disability.