The Elms Practice

Updated 11 July 2018

The Elms Practice is located on Hayling Island, an island off the south coast of England, in the county of Hampshire, to the east of the city of Portsmouth. The premises building is managed by NHS Property Services and is shared with another GP surgery, as well as Hayling Island Voluntary Services, podiatry services, the local District Nursing team and a phlebotomy service provided by Southern Health.

The Elms Practice is located at:
Hayling Island Health Centre
Elm Grove
Mengham
Hayling Island
Hampshire
PO11 9AP.

The local clinical commissioning group (CCG) is the NHS South Eastern Hampshire CCG. The Elms Practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide regulated activities for the treatment of disease, disorder or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and family planning. The practice provides health services to approximately 9,280 registered patients. Approximately 50% of the patient population are over the age of 65 and the practice provides care to residents in 11 care and nursing homes, seven care homes for patients with learning disabilities and three care homes for children. The practice also provides care and treatment to a high number of temporary residents during the holiday season.

The practice has four GP partners and one GP specialist. There are six practice nurses and an operations manager, supported by a team of reception and administration staff. The practice is a teaching practice and there are currently two GP registrars attached to the practice.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday with clinical sessions from 8.20am to 12.10pm and then from 3.20pm until 6pm. On Tuesdays and alternate Wednesdays there are additional extended surgery sessions until 8pm. The practice has access to the local GP Extended Access based within the Havant Health Centre from 6.30pm to 8pm Monday to Friday as well as 8am to 4.30pm on Saturdays. The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. Patients can obtain out of hours care using the 111 service and care is provided by Hampshire Doctors On Call.

Updated 11 July 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection July 2015 – 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 The Elms Practice on 22 May 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had introduced a new ‘Advice Line’ service for patients to contact. A response to any query was intended to be returned to patients within two working days of contacting the service.
• To protect patient confidentiality at the practice’s reception desk, the practice had introduced a ‘quick message’ system. This was a form that patients could complete at the desk, without needing to discuss personal issues in front of other patients, and a response would be returned to them within two working days.
• The practice was consistently higher than the local clinical commissioning group and national averages with regards to patients’ responses in the National GP Survey.
• The practice supplied evidence of risk assessments for the premises but these needed to be first sourced from NHS Property Services, who owned the building.
• Non-clinical staff were not able to consistently identify the ‘red flag’ signs of sepsis. However, they were able to report they would contact a clinician if a patient presented at the practice as extremely unwell.
• 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 focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the arrangements of how non-clinical staff are informed of the symptoms of sepsis.
• Review how the practice assured that all risk assessments at the practice are in place.
• Review how changes to service developments are monitored and evaluated.
• Review how the practice can maintain the uptake for childhood immunisations in line with national guidance.
• Review how the practice can improve the uptake of patients receiving a cervical smear in line with national guidance.
  

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 11 July 2018

Updated 11 July 2018

Updated 11 July 2018

Updated 11 July 2018

Updated 11 July 2018

Updated 11 July 2018