Rother House Medical Centre

Updated 7 June 2018

Rother House Medical Centre is located in Stratford town centre, next to the railway station. The practice was formed in 1937 and moved to its current purpose built location in 1976. Since then, the practice has expanded to include a dispensary for practice patients who live over one mile (1.6km) from the surgery. There is also a branch surgery at the Rosebird Centre, on the opposite side of Stratford town centre. This is located within the Rosebird Centre Pharmacy. We visited the branch surgery as part of our inspection.

The practice has 14,547 patients registered. The area has a high elderly population and most patients speak English as their first language, including a large Polish community served by the practice. There is also a traveller community registered at the practice. The practice population is the ninth least deprived decile in England. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level 10 the lowest.

Rother House Medical Centre offers a range of NHS services including NHS health checks, family planning, well-woman, baby clinic, smoking cessation, weight and cholesterol monitoring. It is also a training practice and regularly hosts trainee GPs. Apprentice administrative staff are also employed and are provided with full training for a range of administrative roles.

Parking is available on site and the practice has facilities for disabled patients.

The practice team works across both sites and consists of seven GP partners, seven salaried GPs, (GPs are male and female) six practice nurses, four healthcare assistants, three dispensary staff, including the dispensary manager, a partner practice manager, assistant practice manager and a team of administrative and reception staff.

Rother House Medical Centre is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday with extended opening on Mondays and Thursdays 6.30pm until 8pm and alternative Saturdays 9am until 12pm. Home visits are available for patients who are too ill to attend the practice for appointments.

The practice has a higher than average number of patients over 65 years.

The practice does not provide an out of hours service to their own patients. When the practice is closed patients are directed to contact Care UK via 111.

The practice website can be viewed at: www.rotherhouse.org.uk

Updated 7 June 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Rother House Medical Centre on 24 April 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice had clear systems, processes and practices in place to protect people from abuse. Staff were aware of how to raise a safeguarding concern and had access to internal leads.
• The practice informed us that they carried out appropriate staff checks at the time of recruitment and on an ongoing basis. On the day of the inspection the practice were unable to evidence that the necessary checks had been carried out for a locum GP. After the inspection, the practice provided evidence that recruitment checks had been completed for the locum GP and that indemnity cover was place.
• There was an effective system to manage infection prevention and control.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• The practice responded to complaints in an efficient and open manner.
• Staff took steps, including working with other agencies, to protect patients from abuse, neglect, harassment, discrimination and breaches of their dignity and respect.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The practice had suitable facilities and was well equipped and maintained to treat patients and meet their needs.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Develop an effective system to record, monitor and track prescription stationery.
• Review the system to track and monitor safety alerts effectively.
• Continue to monitor the effectiveness of new initiatives to increase the uptake for cervical screening.
• Review systems to ensure that staff remain up to date with training considered essential by the practice.