Updated 21 February 2018
St Andrew’s Medical Practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services. The practice provides services to around 11,000 patients from two locations;
- St Andrew’s Lane, Spennymoor, Co Durham, DL16 6QA
- Byer’s Green Surgery, Green Rise, Byers Green, DL16 7PL
We visited only the main surgery at St Andrew’s Lane as part of this inspection. The practice had recently consulted with patients and staff and put together a business case regarding the closure of Byers Green Surgery. The practice is under used by patients, there were only 84 consultations at this location in the last year. We did not visit this location as part of this inspection.
St Andrew’s Medical Practice is situated in a purpose-built building with full disabled access. The practice was able to offer dispensing services to those patients on the practice list who lived more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy.
The practice is currently registered as a GP partnership with CQC. Although there is still a partnership in place none of the partners currently registered with CQC at the practice are working there. We advised that the registration for the practice was now incorrect and that they would now be required to add and remove the partners as appropriate.
The practice has four GP partners (three male and one female), all of whom work full time. There are four advanced nurse practitioners, whole time equivalent (WTE) 2.2, an advanced paramedic practitioner (WTE 1), two practice nurses (WTE 1.66), and three healthcare assistants (WTE 2.32). There is a practice manager and assistant practice manager. There are 11 (WTE 9.08) staff who undertake administration duties and three dispensing staff (WTE 1.15). The practice trains Foundation level (F2) doctors. An F2 is a qualified doctor spending 4 months in a GP practice (undertaking a medical training programme which forms the bridge between medical school and specialist/general practice training).
The opening times at St Andrew’s Medical Practice are from 8am Monday to Friday; on Mondays the practices closes at 7:30pm and Tuesday to Friday at 6pm. Consulting times are 8:30am to 11:15am, 2pm until 4:30pm or 3pm until 5:30pm and on Monday evenings until 7:30pm.
Byers Green is open Tuesday and Friday mornings 10:30am to 11:30am, the consulting times are the same, a GP provides appointments on a Tuesday and an advanced nurse practitioner on a Friday.
The practice provides late evening, weekend and bank holiday appointments;
they are part of the local GP federation of GP practices who work together to provide appointments with GPs, nurses or health care assistants outside of their normal working hours. Patients can contact the practice reception team to arrange appointments. When this service is not provided patients requiring urgent medical care can contact the out of hours provided by the NHS 111 service.
The practice is part of NHS Durham Dales and Sedgefield clinical commissioning group (CCG). The practice provides services based on a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract agreement for general practice.
Information from Public Health England placed the area in which the practice is located in the fourth most deprived decile. The income deprivation score for the practice was 26 compared to the CCG average of 30 and the national average of 24. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services. Average male life expectancy at the practice is 79 years which is the same as the national average. Average female life expectancy at the practice is 82 years compared to the national average of 83 years.