Archived: The Kings Family Practice

Updated 3 December 2015

The Kings Family Practice provides primary medical services in Chatham Kent from Monday to Friday. The practice is open between 8 am and 6 pm with extended hours between 6pm and 8pm Tuesday evenings and 8am and 11am Saturday mornings. All appointments for the extended hours must be pre-booked.

The Kings Family Practice is situated within the geographical area of NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The Kings Family Practice is responsible for providing care to 9,000 patients. The practice has a higher than average patient population of families, young children and working age patients , as well as students.

Services are delivered from:

30-34 Magpie Hall Road

Chatham

Kent

ME4 5JY

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. There are arrangements with other providers (IC24) to deliver services to patients outside of The Kings Family Practice working hours.

Updated 3 December 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection for The Kings Family Practice on 21 April 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good. Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. The practice was also good for providing services for older patients, patients with long term conditions, families, children and young patients, working age patients (including those recently retired and students), patients who’s circumstances may make them vulnerable and patients experiencing poor mental health (including patients with dementia).

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• The practice worked well with other services to provide treatment and support for patients that had a diagnosis of a mental health condition and/or substance abuse.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• 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 and easy to understand.
• Patients were able to book routine appointment s with the GP at a time that suited them. Urgent appointments were available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• 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.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 3 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of patients with long-term conditions. Nursing staff held lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admissions were identified as a priority. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that 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 multi-disciplinary package of care.

Updated 3 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk. The practice had recognised that childhood immunisation rates for vaccinations were marginally below the local target levels and were working with Public Health England to improve on the uptake. What the practice had identified was the difficulties of reaching patients with alternative lifestyles and those who experience difficulty accessing healthcare. Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals, and we saw evidence to confirm this. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. We saw good examples of joint working with midwives, health visitors and school nurses.

Updated 3 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older patients. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older patients in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older patients, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs. The practice had implemented named GPs to lead care and support to patients living in care or nursing homes.

Updated 3 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. Same day clinics with the medical team were provided. The practice offered appointments with the GPs, nurses and the health care assistant (HCA) from 6pm to 8pm one evening per week.

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.

Updated 3 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). Seventy five per cent of people experiencing poor mental health had received an annual physical health check. The practice had identified 100 patients with a mental health diagnosis which had been assessed and they had a personal care plan. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. It carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia.

The practice had a high registration of patients with substance misuse, supporting a “shared care” service with a local support organisation. The practice worked well with other mental health services and practitioners providing a shared approach for patient care.

Updated 3 December 2015

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 homeless people, travellers and those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks for people with a learning disability and 95% of these patients had received a follow-up. It offered longer appointments for people with a learning disability.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. The GPs visited some vulnerable groups where accessing healthcare was difficult. The practice signposted patients on how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies during normal working hours and out of hours.