Archived: Oaks Place Surgery

Updated 9 August 2017

Oaks Place Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services. It provides GP services for approximately 3,340 patients living in Widnes. The practice is managed by an individual GP and has two regular locum GPs and a practice nurse. There are administration and reception staff and a practice manager. The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England and is part of Halton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The practice is open during the week; between 9am and 6.30pm with the exception of Thursday when the practice closes at 12.30pm.  GP cover was provided by the local federation of GPs and the practice is opening all day on Thursdays from September 2017. Patients can book appointments in person, online or via the telephone. The practice provides telephone consultations, pre bookable consultations, urgent consultations and home visits. Patients can access the Out-of-Hours GP service by calling NHS 111. The practice was also part of a local federation to allow access for pre bookable appointments outside of normal working hours.

At the time of the inspection, the provider was incorrectly registered with us as a partnership. The provider arranged for the registration to be updated on the day.

Updated 9 August 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Oaks Place Surgery on 22 September 2015. The overall rating for the practice was good but required improvement for providing safe services. The full comprehensive report on the 22 September 2015 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Oaks Place Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced follow up comprehensive carried out on 20 June 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 22 September 2015. This report includes our findings in relation to those requirements.

Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• The practice had addressed the issues identified during the previous inspection 22 September 2015. Improvements had been made in the monitoring and auditing systems for infection control and in facilitating shared learning from incidents and audit work with the whole staff team.
• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Information from Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards and the national GP patient survey data reviewed indicated that patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• Urgent appointments were available the same day.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The practice embraced modern technology to improve monitoring systems for the safety of the practice and communications with patients. The practice was aware of the pressures of patient access and was working as part of a GP Federation in the area to address this issue.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• A first aid kit should be available.
• Implement a system to monitor professional registration and keep reference documents.
• Update complaints patient information leaflet to make it clearer to patients who they can complain to.
• Continue to work towards establishing a patient participation group.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 9 August 2017

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

• The practice followed up on patients with long-term conditions discharged from hospital and ensured that their care plans were updated to reflect any additional needs.
• All these patients had a named GP and there was a system to recall patients for a structured annual review to check their health and medication needs were being met.
• For those patients with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care. 

Updated 9 August 2017

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

• The practice worked with midwives and health visitors to support this population group. For example, in the provision of ante-natal, post-natal and child health surveillance clinics and provided immunisations.
• The practice had emergency processes for acutely ill children and young people.

Updated 9 August 2017

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

• The practice was responsive to the needs of older patients, and offered home visits and urgent appointments for those with enhanced needs.
• The practice identified at an early stage older patients who may need palliative care as they were approaching the end of life. It involved older patients in planning and making decisions about their care, including their end of life care.
• The practice followed up on older patients discharged from hospital and ensured that their care plans were updated to reflect any extra needs.
• The practice worked closely with district nurses and community matrons to deliver co-ordinated care.
• The practice had access to a local rapid clinical assessment team so that patients over 65 could be seen in their own homes to avoid hospital admissions.

Updated 9 August 2017

The practice is rated as good for the 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 that reflected the needs for this age group.
• The practice worked with the local GP federation to offer appointments outside of normal working hours.

Updated 9 August 2017

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

• The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of patients experiencing poor mental health, including those living with dementia.
• The practice worked closely with the local mental health services in the area. The practice was able to signpost patients experiencing poor mental health to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

Updated 9 August 2017

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 including those with a learning disability.
• The practice offered longer appointments for patients with a learning disability.
• The practice regularly worked with other health care professionals in the case management of vulnerable patients.
• The practice had information available for vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.