Stifford Clays Medical Practice

Background to this inspection

Updated 27 February 2017

Stifford Clays Medical Practice is situated in Grays, Essex and is accessible by public transport. There is limited parking available at the practice but patients are able to park in the roads nearby.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with the NHS and has approximately 9450 patients. It is a teaching practice that provides work placements for GP trainees and doctors undertaking a two year foundation training course towards qualification as a GP or specialist.

The practice patient population has a lower than national average of patients aged 20 to 39 and a slightly higher than average number of patients aged between 40 and over 85.

There are three partners at the practice, two of them are GPs and one is a nurse. They employ three salaried GPs and one of the GPs is female, the rest are male. They are supported by five nurses and a healthcare assistant working a variety of hours each week.

There is a practice manager, a finance manager, a medical secretary, three administrators and six members of reception staff.

The practice is open between 8.30am and 6.30pm on Monday to Friday and is closed for lunch for one hour each day. The GPs hold surgeries in the mornings between 9am and 11am and in the afternoons between 2pm and 6pm.

When the practice is closed patients are directed to the out of hour’s service provided by IC24. Alternatively they can contact the non-emergency service by dialling 111.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 27 February 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Stifford Clays Medical Practice on 17 December 2015. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report for this inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Stifford Clays Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We then carried out a desk-based focused inspection on 6 October 2016 to confirm that the practice were now meeting the legal requirements in relation to the breaches of regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 17 December 2015. 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:

There was an effective governance system in place to identify and mitigate the risks to patients and staff in relation to risk assessments, infection control and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for chaperones.
Learning from significant events and complaints was cascaded to relevant staff.
The majority of staff had received appropriate training, supervision and appraisal. Six out of 23 staff did not have their basic life support training status recorded and the practice manager had not received an appraisal.
Cleaning checklists were being completed by staff responsible for cleaning at the practice.
There was an improved flow of communication amongst staff.
Patient Group Directions were signed by the authorising manager.

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

The provider should:

Ensure that the practice manager receives a regular appraisal.
Improve the record keeping in relation to training to evidence that staff have received it.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice