The Grove Road Practice

Background to this inspection

Updated 17 August 2017

The Grove Road Practice provides primary medical services in Sutton to approximately 9000 patients and is one of 27 practices in Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The practice population is in the second least deprived decile in England.

The practice population has lower than CCG and national average representation of income deprived children and older people. The practice population of children and working age people is in line with the local and national average; the practice population of older people is above the local average and in line with the national average. Of patients registered with the practice for whom the ethnicity data was recorded, 37% are other white background, 6% white British and 6% are other Asian background.

The practice operates in converted premises. All patient facilities are wheelchair accessible on the ground floor and there is no lift access to the first floor; for patients who are not able to access the first floor appointments are provided on the ground floor. The practice has access to four doctors’ consultation rooms and one treatment room on the ground floor and one doctors’ consultation room and one treatment room on the first floor.

The clinical team at the surgery is made up of two full-time male GPs who are partners, one full-time male GP and one part-time female salaried GP and two part-time female practice nurses. The non-clinical practice team consists of one practice manager and 14 administrative and reception staff members. The practice provides a total of 40 GP sessions per week.

The practice operates under a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract, and is signed up to a number of local and national enhanced services (enhanced services require an enhanced level of service provision above what is normally required under the core GP contract).

The practice reception and telephone lines are open from 8:00am until 6:30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available from 8:30am to 11:30am and 3:30pm to 6:00pm every day. Extended hours surgeries are offered on Mondays from 6:30pm to 8:00pm and on Saturdays from 9:00am to 12:00pm.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours (OOH) services to their own patients between 6:30pm and 8am and directs patients to the out-of-hours provider for Sutton CCG.

The practice is registered as a partnership with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 17 August 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Grove Road Practice on 13 October 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report on the October 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Grove Road Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 11 July 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations 9(1) Person-centred care, 12(1) and 12(2) Safe care and treatment, and 18(2) Staffing of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) regulations 2014 that we identified in our previous inspection on 13 October 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
All staff had received training relevant to their role.
The practice sent response letters for all patients who had made a complaint with all the relevant information.
The practice undertook regular governance meetings for non-clinical staff.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should:

Review practice procedures to ensure that the outcomes for patients with long term conditions are improved especially for patients with diabetes.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice