Park Road Group Practice Also known as The Elms Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report of findings from our inspection of Park Road Group Practice. Park Road Group Practice is also known as The Elms Medical Centre and is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services.

We undertook a planned, comprehensive inspection on 15 October 2014 at the practice location at the Elms Medical Centre, Dingle, Liverpool. We spoke with patients, relatives, staff and the practice management team.

The practice was rated as Good. They provided safe, effective, responsive and compassionate care that was well led and addressed the needs of the diverse population it served. However there were aspects of the service that needed to improve.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There were aspects of the service that needed improvement. There were systems in place to ensure safe patient care and that lessons were learnt from adverse events and incidents. The premises were clean and patients were protected from the risk of infection. Systems were in place to ensure medicines were appropriately stored and used. However improvements were required to ensure staff were safely recruited and required information was held in relation to staff.         
• The practice was caring. Patients spoke highly of the practice. They said they were always treated with dignity and respect, listened to and staff were kind, compassionate and caring.
• The practice was responsive. The practice served patients in a deprived area of Liverpool. The practice provided good care to its population taking into account their cultural, religious, socio economic and language needs. The appointment system had been improved to enable good access to the patient population.
• The practice was effective. Patient’s needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current guidance and legislation. The practice promoted health education to empower patients to live healthier lives.
• The practice was well led. The practice worked hard to monitor, evaluate and improve services. They worked in collaboration with other practices and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) within the Neighbourhood Team. Staff enjoyed working for the practice and felt well supported and valued.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. 

Importantly, the provider must:

• Take action to ensure its recruitment arrangements are in line with Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to ensure necessary employment checks are in place for all staff and these checks are relevant to the roles.

In addition the provider should:

• Follow up audits and undertake re audits to ensure the audit cycle is complete and improvements can be demonstrated. Review of actions taken following complaints should also be undertaken to demonstrate learning and improvements.
• Review and update fire risk assessments and the fire precautions policy and procedures to reflect the local situation and current guidance. Fire alarm checks should be recorded fully to ensure they demonstrate these have been undertaken appropriately.

• Risk assessments and risk management procedures should be reviewed to localise and update in order to reflect current guidance and legislation.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice