Drs Bloomer, Devlin and Baxter Also known as Redfern Health Centre

Updated 26 February 2018

Drs Bloomer, Devlin and Baxter (known as Redfern Health Centre) provides primary medical services to people living in the town of Salcombe, Devon and the surrounding area. The practice is situated in a rural coastal location. The 2011 census data showed that majority of the local population identified themselves as being White British.

At the time of our inspection there are approximately 4,500 patients registered at the service with a team of three full time GP partners, two male and one female. In addition, there are three practice nurses, a phlebotomist, a practice manager and six administrative and reception staff.

Patients who use the practice have access to community staff including district nurses, community psychiatric nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, mental health staff, counsellors, chiropodist and midwives. Other health care professionals visit the practice on a regular basis.

The practice is open from 8.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are offered between those times. Extended hours are offered between 7.30am until 8.30am on a Tuesday and Thursday. Outside of these times patients are directed to contact the out of hour’s service and the NHS 111 number. This is in line with local contract arrangements.

The practice offers a range of appointment types including face to face same day appointments, telephone consultations and advance appointments (three months in advance) as well as online services such as repeat prescriptions.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England.

This report relates to the regulatory activities being carried out at the following site:

Redfern Health Centre

Shadycombe Road

Salcombe

Devon

TQ8 8DJ

We visited this location during our inspection.

Updated 26 February 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection October 2014 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at 9 January 2018 as part of our planned inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• 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 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.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The practice was above average for its satisfaction scores on consultations with GPs and nurses. For example, 99% of patients who responded said the GP was good at listening to them compared with the clinical commissioning group (CCG) average of 93% and the national average of 89%.
• There was an active patient participation group and a separate Friends of Redfern Centre (FORC) fund raising support group. The practice provided these groups with rooms and refreshments for their quarterly meetings.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had set up a co-ordinated care arrangement with the local food bank to support the most deprived members of the practice population. The local food bank provided the practice with food bank vouchers. The practice then made informed decisions to provide these food bank vouchers to those patients most in need. This had a positive impact on approximately 1% of the practice population, providing healthy nutritious meals and essential supplies for these patients and their families.
• The practice provided a wide range of portable technological devices to patients for home use and for use at the practice. These included heart monitors, blood pressure monitors, a spirometer (used to monitor lung function) and audiometers (used to monitor hearing). The benefit and positive impact on patients from these devices enabled accurate diagnosis and also reduced the inconvenience to patients of having to make a 50 mile round trip to Derriford hospital for a specialist referral for any conditions relating to these monitoring devices. Using these technological devices had a positive impact on approximately 300 patients, which was approximately 6% of the practice population.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 26 February 2018

Updated 26 February 2018

Updated 26 February 2018

Updated 26 February 2018

Updated 26 February 2018

Updated 26 February 2018