- GP practice
Albany Practice
Report from 9 August 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Albany Practice is a GP practice which provides primary medical services to approximately 7,486 patients from its location in the London borough of Hounslow. The practice consists of 2 GP partners, a salaried GP, advanced nurse practitioner, a physician associate, 2 practice nurses, 2 health care assistants, a GP registrar and a clinical pharmacist. Other practice staff included 1 clinical administrator, 4 receptionists/administrator, 1 records summariser, 1 secretary, 1 senior administrator, 1 assistant practice manager, 1 practice manager and 1 business manager. The practice is part of Brentworth Primary Care Network. The practice is open 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday and Saturday 9am to 12 noon including every 7th Saturday 9am to 5pm for the primary care network (PCN). For out of hours services, people are directed to NHS 111 or 999 for an emergency. The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver the Regulated Activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder, or injury, and surgical procedures. We inspected and rated this service under our previous methodology on 13 April 2021.It was rated as requires improvement overall, and for the key questions caring, responsive and effective. Key questions safe and well-led were rated as good. We carried out our assessment using our single assessment framework on 10 September 2024 and the clinical remote searches were completed by our GP Specialist Advisor on 9 September 2024. We completed a comprehensive assessment of all key questions and 33 quality statements. We found there were significant improvements made since 2021. The provider had clear and effective governance systems which staff regularly reviewed to ensure safe care continued to be provided.There were gaps in the clinical IT system observed during the assessment process that needed further improvement, and patient access was a challenge.
People's experience of this service
We collected patient feedback from a variety of sources including interviews with patients and the national GP patient survey. Patients we interviewed gave a mix of feedback about the practice. However, the general concern was around patient access, seeing the doctor and waiting too long on the phone to get an appointment. Patients knew how to complain and said the reception staff were very friendly, but the clinical staff needed to improve how they related with patients. Members of the patient participation group (PPG) mentioned that the practice had improved significantly but more structured approach is needed to make further progress in service delivery.