Chawton Park Surgery

Updated 19 August 2016

Chawton Park Surgery is situated in the outskirts in Alton, Hampshire and has been at this location since 2005. The practice shares its building with a pharmacy and is based in the grounds of Alton Community Hospital.

The practice is responsible for providing primary care services to approximately 9400 patients. Chawton Park Surgery also has a contract to provide minor injury services to patients who are not registered with the practice, but are able to attend the practice in person.

Appointments are available between 8.40am and 5.45pm Monday to Friday. The practice operates extended opening hours on Tuesday 6.30pm to 7.30pm and Friday 7am to 8am to see both GPs and nurses. The minor injury service is available between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients and refers them to Hantsdoc who are the out-of-hours provider. Patients can access Hantsdoc via the 111 service.

The practice has six GP partners who together work an equivalent of 5.75 full time staff. There are three male and three female GPs and a part time salaried assistant GP. The practice is a training practice and has up to four trainee GPs at any one time. GPs are supported by three nursing staff and two health care assistants. The practice also has an administration team of 14 which consists of receptionists, administrators, secretary, reception manager, IT manager and the practice manager.

The practice has a high number of patients who are aged between 40 and 69 when compared to the England average. Due to the rural nature of Alton, the practice has a high number of patients who reside in neighbouring villages. Also a high number of working age patients commute via train to London to work.

We carried out a desk based focused inspection and did not visit the practice.

Updated 19 August 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a desk based focused inspection of Chawton Park Surgery on 15 July 2016. This inspection was undertaken to check the practice was meeting the regulations. At our previous inspection on 5 February 2015, we found breaches of regulations relating to the safe delivery of services. The practice was rated good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services and requires improvement for safe.

At our review on 15 July 2016, we found the practice was meeting the regulations that had previously been breached and we found the practice had made improvements since our last inspection on 5 February 2015

Key findings:

• The practice had reviewed and made changes to how medicines were stored and ensured appropriate arrangements were in place for monitoring the temperature of vaccine fridges;

• The practice had ensured that fire safety and legionella risk assessments were completed as needed;

• The practice had risk assessed the need for criminal record checks for staff who acted as chaperones.

We have amended the rating for safe to reflect these changes. The practice is now rated good for the provision of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services. The overall rating for the practice remains good.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long term conditions.

Emergency processes were in place and referrals made for patients in this group that had a sudden deterioration in health. The practice provided extended appointments for patients with the presence of two or more long term conditions. These clinics were well attended and patients were given extended appointments and sufficient time to have their issues addressed.

All patients with long term health conditions had structured annual reviews to check their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs GPs worked with relevant health and social care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.

Systems were in place for identifying and following-up vulnerable families and who were at risk.

Immunisation rates were high for all standard childhood immunisations.

Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. All of the staff were very responsive to parents’ concerns and ensured parents could

have same day appointments for children who were unwell. Staff were knowledgeable about child protection and a GP took the lead with the local authority and other professionals to safeguard children and families.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.

Nationally reported data showed the practice had good outcomes for conditions commonly found amongst older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, shingles vaccinations and end of life care. The care for patients at the end of life was in line with the Gold Standard Framework. This meant they worked, as part of a multidisciplinary team and with out of hours providers to ensure consistency of care and a shared understanding of the patient’s wishes. We saw care plans were in place for patients at risk of unplanned hospital admissions, and those aged 75 and over who were vulnerable had care plans in place.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for care of working age people (including those recently retired and students).

The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening which reflected the needs for this age group. Patients were provided with a range of healthy lifestyle support including referrals available to external agencies to support people in leading healthier lifestyles.

The practice had extended opening hours enabling people to make appointments outside normal working hours. Appointments could be booked online in advance and a text message reminder system was in place to remind patients of pre booked appointments.

The practice had a system in place to identify carers, which enabled them to provide appropriate support and referrals. NHS health checks, a service which provides opportunistic or planned health check for patients aged 40-74 years were in place.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

The practice maintained a register of patients who experienced poor mental health. The register supported clinical staff to offer patients an annual appointment for a health checks and a medicines review. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health including those with dementia. The practice had in place advance care planning for patients with dementia. The practice sign-posted patients experiencing poor mental health to various support groups and voluntary organisations including referrals to counselling services.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. The practice carried out annual health checks for people with learning disabilities and offered longer appointments for people where required. Staff knew how to recognise the signs of abuse and were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in and out of hours.