Background to this inspection
Updated
28 November 2018
The Barcroft Practice is an NHS GP practice located in the Wiltshire town of Amesbury. It is one of 55 practices within the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group and has approximately 10,450 patients.
The practice occupies a large, purpose built building with consulting rooms on the ground floor. Rooms for phlebotomy, health visitors, pharmacy consulting, midwifery and a baby clinic are located on the first floor. The reception and administration offices are also situated on the first floor. There is a patient lift and full disabled access. A large waiting room contains a TV screen that relays NHS health information.
The area the practice serves has relatively low numbers of people from different cultural backgrounds and is in the low range for deprivation nationally. Average male and female life expectancy for the area is 80 and 84 years respectively, which is the similar to the national averages of 79 and 83 years. The practice is close to a number of military bases and has a higher than average patient turnover. The practice has a slightly higher than average patient population who are under 18 years old.
The practice provides a number of services and clinics for its patients including: childhood immunisations, family planning, minor surgery, ophthalmology, dermatology and a range of health lifestyle management and advice for asthma, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.
The practice team includes seven GP partners and a salaried GP (five females, three male). In addition, two practice nurses, a phlebotomist (who is also a receptionist), a practice nurse manager and one health care assistant are employed. The clinicians are supported by a practice manager and a team of office assistants, secretaries and receptionists.
The Barcroft Practice is a training practice for doctors and currently has two trainees.
The practice is open from 8am to 1pm and 2pm to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. An emergency phone contact is provided between 1pm and 2pm from Monday to Friday. The practice offers extended opening hours on four days per week until 7.30pm. The practice also offers Saturday morning appointments on one Saturday every month, from 9am to 11am. Urgent same day appointments and appointments pre-bookable up to one month in advance are available. Extended hours appointments and Saturday appointments are only available if pre-booked.
The practice has opted out of providing Out Of Hours services to their own patients. Patients can access NHS 111 and an Out Of Hours GP service is available to patients. Information about how to access this service was available in the practice waiting area and on the practice website.
The practice has a General Medical Services contract to deliver health care services. This contract acts as the basis for arrangements between NHS England and providers of general medical services in England.
The Barcroft Practice provides regulated activities from its site at:
Barcroft Medical centre, Amesbury, Salisbury, SP4 7DR
Updated
28 November 2018
This
practice is rated as Good overall. (At our previous inspection in March 2018 they were rated as requires improvement overall).
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
- Are services safe? – Good
- Are services effective? – Good
- Are services caring? – Good
- Are services responsive? – Good
- Are services well-led? - Good
When we inspected The Barcroft Practice on 8 March 2018 we found some breaches in the regulations relating to safe care and treatment, good governance and staffing. We issued requirement notices to the practice setting out the areas they were required to improve. The full report of our inspection on 8 March can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Barcroft Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk. Following publication of our report, the practice sent us a plan setting out the actions they were taking to rectify the regulatory beaches we had found.
This report covers the announced comprehensive inspection we carried out at The Barcroft Practice on 20 September 2018. We carried out this inspection to follow up on the breaches we found at our previous inspection.
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 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 strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
We saw two areas of outstanding practice:
- The practice ran weekly ophthalmology and dermatology clinics. These enabled patients with common eye complaints and skin conditions respectively to be seen closer to home, usually within a week, rather than waiting for an outpatient’s appointment.
- The practice held regular coffee mornings at a local hotel that were run by the practice Elderly Care Facilitator for older people who were at risk of becoming isolated and lonely. There was a programme of speakers and activities were arranged to meet these patients’ needs. Clinical staff, also attended these events. Patients who attended the group spoke highly of the mornings. The practice had data which showed that of 100 older patients who had attended the coffee club in the past year, 74% said they had benefited from attending. They also ran a carers’ coffee mornings four times a year. Information about these was on the practice website and on a notice board in the surgery. These were run in partnership with the local Wiltshire Carers trust, who had staff in attendance at these events to provide support and advice.
There were areas where the provider should make improvements. The provider should:
- Ensure all staff are aware of the need to remove their security cards from computers when they leave the workstation.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.