Tavyside Health Centre

Updated 6 August 2018

The partnership of GPs registered as Tavyside Health Centre runs one registered location in Tavistock and a branch surgery in Lifton. This was a comprehensive inspection over two days covering both sites, including the dispensary located at Lifton Surgery.

The practice is located at:

Tavyside Health Centre, Abbey Rise, Tavistock, Devon  PL19 9FD

The branch surgery is located at:

Lifton Surgery, North Rd, Lifton, Devon  PL16 0EH

The practice provides a primary medical service to 12,354 patients of a diverse age group. The practice population area is in the seventh deprivation decile. In a score of one to ten the lower the decile the more deprived an area is. The surrounding villages have higher levels of rural deprivation. There is a practice age distribution of male and female patient’s equivalent to national average figures. Average life expectancy for the area is similar to national figures with males living to an average age of 80 years and females to 85 years.

There is a team of eight GPs partners, supported by four salaried GPs (five male and seven female). The team are supported by a practice manager, four practice nurses, four healthcare assistants and a part time clinical pharmacist. There are dispensing staff at Lifton Surgery and administrative and reception staff on both sites.

Tavyside Health Centre is an approved training practice providing vocational placements for GPs registrars. Four GP partners are approved to provide vocational training for GPs, second year post qualification doctors and medical students. A GP registrar was on placement when we inspected. Teaching placements are provided for medical students, post qualification doctors, student nurses and paramedics. Patients using the practice also have access to community nurses, mental health teams and health visitors. Other health care professionals visit the practice on a regular basis.

The practice is open between 8am and 6:30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available from 8am every morning and 6pm daily. Extended hours opening is available on a Thursday from 7.30am to 8.30am and alternate Saturday’s from 8am to 12pm.

The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments. Outside of these times patients are directed to contact the out of hour's service by using the NHS 111 number in line with local arrangements.

The practice is able to offer dispensing services to those patients on the practice list who live more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy in the surrounding areas near to Lifton Surgery. The dispensary is open for ordering and collection of medicines from 8am to 12pm and from 2pm to 6pm. Patients are also able to collect medicines from reception during opening hours.

Updated 6 August 2018

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

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Tavyside Health Centre on 13 and 18 June 2018. The inspection was a routine inspection as part of our inspection schedule carried out over two days. We visited the main site and branch surgery at Lifton, which had a dispensary.

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 processes.
• Staff were caring and patient focussed.
• People’s individual needs and preferences were central to the planning and delivery of flexible tailored services. All patient feedback highlighted ease of access to the appointment system, on the day assessment and minor injuries services. Extended hours were available every day enabling working patients and school children to access a range of services from the multi-disciplinary team.
• As a training practice, there was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. Proactive succession planning based on staff development and training of future GPs, doctors and practice nurses was evident.
• Tavyside Health Centre had successfully registered additional patients in 2016/17 when the practice merged with Lifton Surgery. Patient feedback shared with us by patient representatives at Lifton Surgery was positive about the changes being made there.

We saw an area of outstanding practice including:

The practice had extended their tailored learning disability service, which had increased to 35 patients within this population group. A lead GP and senior health care assistant did domiciliary visits to patients at their own home. Staff used advanced total communication skills such as makaton signing and easy read letters with patients so they were fully involved in their health assessment and care planning.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

Review the infection control processes to include hand hygiene audits to identify competency issues and training gaps for staff.

Review the prescription authorisation process to ensure changes implemented are embedded practice.

Updated 6 August 2018

Updated 6 August 2018

Updated 6 August 2018

Updated 6 August 2018

Updated 6 August 2018

Updated 6 August 2018