DCCS at Buckden and Little Paxton Surgeries

Updated 25 April 2019

After treatment, the staff give each patient a direct contact number to call in case of concerns and patients are made aware they can call 111 to access out of hours services. The service website and leaflets contain comprehensive information for patients about their procedures and after care.

We carried out an announced, comprehensive inspection on 9 April 2019 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led?

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector and was supported by a GP specialist advisor.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with staff including the lead GP who is a local GP, a dermatology consultant from Peterborough City Hospital and a nurse. We spoke with health care assistant, and with the manager and administration, IT and secretarial team members. We listened to video and written feedback from staff members including the dermatology specialist nurse.
• Reviewed the personal care or treatment records of patients.
• Spoke with five patients who had used the service.
• Reviewed comment cards where patients and members of the public shared their views and experiences of the service.
• Feedback provided by the Clinical Commissioning Group.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 25 April 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at DCCS at Buckden and Little Paxton Surgeries as part of our inspection programme.

Dermatology Clinic Community Service LTD is an independent provider of a dermatology assessment, a minor surgery service, a vasectomy service, and a lymphedoema clinic. The service holds contracts with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to deliver community services, closer to patient’s homes and avoid attendances at secondary care. They have been providing these services for approximately 16 years. They treat between 2,000 and 2,500 patients each year.

Dermatology Clinic Community Service LTD is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide services at Buckden and Little Paxton Surgeries (a GP practice) with locations at Little Paxton (a branch site of Buckden and Little Paxton Surgeries), Warboys, St Ives in Huntingdon and in Hinchingbrook Hospital Treatment Centre. The services offered are dermatology outpatient opinions, minor surgery including biopsies, vasectomy, cryotherapy and lymphoedema.

The lead GP is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service proactively gained feedback from patients with regular reports compiled from the surveys conducted at each clinic. As part of our inspection we reviewed the results of the patient surveys that had been collected over the previous 12 months.

We received 36 Care Quality Commission comment cards, and all of these were wholly positive about the care and service and positive outcomes the patients had received. We spoke with five patients who reported that they had received excellent care in a timely and efficient manner and by staff who were caring and dedicated.

Our key findings were :

• We saw there was strong leadership within the service and the team worked together in a cohesive, supported, and open manner. Since our previous inspection there had been changes to the management team and a new manager started in December 2018.
• There was an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
• All staff had received a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
• Risks to patients were assessed and the service provided evidence that further improvements to these systems were in progress.
• The service held a comprehensive central register of policies and procedures which were in place to govern activity; staff were able to access these policies easily and all staff had signed each one. This ensured that the provider had oversight to manage the performance of the staff.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge, and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• All patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity, and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The service proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on. Regular surveys were undertaken and reports collated from the findings and action taken where required.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to embed the newly implemented systems and processes to ensure they are effective, including those relating to the management of training, safety alerts, health and safety and infection prevention and control.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care