The Village Surgery

Updated 30 March 2016

The Village Surgery is based in Garston, a suburb of Liverpool, within a large purpose built NHS Treatment Centre. There are car parking facilities and several other NHS facilities on the same site including physiotherapy, radiology and a pharmacy. There were 6100 patients on the practice register at the time of our inspection.

The practice is managed by two full time GP partners and there is one salaried and one regular locum GP. There is an advanced nurse practitioner, one practice nurse and a health care assistant. Members of clinical staff are supported by a practice manager, reception and administration staff.

The practice is open 8am to 6.30pm every weekday. There are extended hours appointments on Monday and Tuesday mornings from 7.15 am to 8am and Monday evenings until 8pm.

Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the GP out of hours service, provided by Urgent Care 24 by calling 111.

The practice has a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract and has enhanced services contracts which include childhood vaccinations.

Updated 30 March 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Village Surgery on 19 February 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• The practice is situated in a large purpose built health centre with access to other services such as phlebotomy. The practice was clean and had good facilities including disabled access, translation services and a hearing loop.

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available. The practice sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service; including carrying out surveys and having a patient participation group (PPG) and acted, where possible, on feedback.

• Many of the staff had worked at the practice for a long time and knew the patients well. Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

However, there were areas where the provider should make improvements:

• Have a monitoring system in place for any blank prescriptions still in stock.

• Strengthen communications between all staff by having policies and procedures readily available to all staff and facilitating the attendance of all staff at staff meetings.

• Produce information that is readily available for locum GPs (locum induction pack)

• Hold regular reviews of significant events and complaints over set periods of time to identify any trends to help improve the service provided.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 30 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people with long term conditions.  The practice had registers in place for several long term conditions including diabetes and asthma. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 30 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for families, children and young people. The practice regularly liaised with health visitors to review vulnerable children and new mothers. There were systems in place 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 A&E attendances.

Updated 30 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and offered home visits and care home visits. The practice participated in meetings with other healthcare professionals to discuss any concerns. There was a named GP for the over 75s. 

Updated 30 March 2016

The practice is as rated good for providing services for working age people. The needs of this population group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible. For example, the practice offered extended hours on a Monday and Tuesday morning and a Monday evening. Additional facilities were available for making appointments for example, online.

Updated 30 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people experiencing poor mental health. Patients experiencing poor mental health received an invitation for an annual physical health check. Those that did not attend had alerts placed on their records so they could be reviewed opportunistically.  The practice worked with local mental health teams.

Updated 30 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people whose circumstances make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks and longer appointments were available for people with a learning disability.