Archived: Thurrock Health Centre Also known as College Health Ltd

Updated 17 September 2015

Thurrock Centre is located in a purpose built health centre situated on Grays High Street in Essex. The practice provides services for approximately 7,500 patients living within the Grays and Tilbury area. The practice holds both General Medical Services (GMS) and Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contracts and provides GP services co-commissioned by NHS England and Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group. A walk-in service is available to patients who are not registered at the practice. This service is provided between 8am and 8pm every day including weekends and public holidays. Patients can be seen by a GP or nurse for acute (new) conditions or where they experience deterioration in their health. A range of treatments are provided to walk-in patients including wound dressings, minor injuries or emergency contraception. The walk-in service does not provide reviews of existing long term conditions, medication reviews, vaccines or repeat prescriptions and patients are advised to see their own GP for these.

The practice population is higher than the national average for younger people and children under four years and similar for working aged and recently retired, and lower for older people aged over 75 years. Economic deprivation levels affecting children, older people and unemployment were higher than the practice average across England. Life expectancy for men and women are in line the national averages. The practice patient list has a higher than national average of working aged people who are unemployed.

The practice is managed by College Health Limited which also provides GP services in Maidstone and Medway in Kent.

The practice is open between 8am and 8pm on each day including weekend and bank holidays offering a walk-in service.

The practice has opted out of providing GP services to patients outside of normal working hours such as evenings, weekends and public holidays. Unscheduled out-of-hours care is provided by NHS 111 services and patients who contact the surgery outside of opening hours are advised of how to contact this service. This information is also available on the practice website.

Updated 17 September 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Thurrock Health Centre, which provides a service to registered patients as well as a walk in centre, on 20 May 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective and responsive and caring services. It was also good for providing services for older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working aged people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances make them vulnerable and people with mental health (including people with dementia).

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses including those related to patients who accessed the walk-in centre. Improvements were needed in how safety alerts and significant events were acted on and monitored.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance and referrals to secondary care services were made in a timely way.
• The practice provided a walk –in service 365 days each year from 8am to 8pm. They had robust arrangements for liaising with patients registered GPs, the local out-of-hours service and safeguarding teams. Information about patients was shared appropriately between these teams.
• Patients we spoke with said they were treated with empathy, compassion, dignity and respect. They said that they were listened to and involved in making decisions about their care and treatment. Results from the National GP Patient Survey 2015 indicated lower levels of satisfaction and negative comments about how staff engaged with them. The practice was reviewing this feedback and acting on this to improve patient experiences.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand and complaints were handled and responded to appropriately.
• Appointments were flexible to meet the needs of all patients. Some patients reported longer waiting times to be seen and difficulties in accessing appointments. The practice had responded to this by regularly monitoring waiting times and introducing a triage system to help improve access to appointments.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff were supported by management. The practice sought feedback from staff and patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 17 September 2015

This practice is rated as good for the care of people with long term conditions. The practice had effective arrangements for making sure that people with long term conditions had regular health and medication reviews. The practice offered a number of clinics including clinics for diabetes, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and some recurrent eye conditions. When patients required referral to specialist services, including secondary care, patients were offered a choice of services, locations and dates. These referrals were made in a timely way and monitored to ensure that patients received the treatments they needed.

Updated 17 September 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of families, children and young people. Appointments were flexible and walk-in services were available each day. Ante-natal and post-natal checks were available. The practice monitored the physical and developmental progress of babies and young children and weekly drop in sessions were held at the practice with the health visitor. Appointments for children were made available outside of school hours. There were arrangements for identifying and monitoring children who were at risk of abuse or neglect.

There was information available to inform mothers about all childhood immunisations, what they are, and at what age the child should have them as well as other checks for new-born babies. Staff proactively followed up patients who failed to attend appointments for routine immunisation and vaccination programmes. Information and advice on sexual health and contraception was provided during GP and nurse appointments.

Updated 17 September 2015

accountable GP who was responsible for their care and treatment and a full range of screening and vaccinations were available. The practice identified patients who were at risk of avoidable unplanned hospital admissions and planned care in conjunction with other health and social professionals to prevent these. Regular multidisciplinary team meetings were held with other health and social care professionals to support patients and ensure that they received coordinated care and treatment.

Home visits and medicines dispensing services were provided based upon patients’ circumstances and needs.

Updated 17 September 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). Appointments were flexible with telephone consultations, pre-booked appointments and a daily walk-in service up to 8pm each day. NHS health checks for patients aged between 40 and 75 years were available and promoted within the practice and on their website. Nurse led clinics were provided for well patient health checks.

Updated 17 September 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). People experiencing poor mental health had received an annual physical health check. The practice regularly worked with multidisciplinary teams to support people experiencing poor mental health including those with dementia. The practice carried out dementia screening services and referrals were made to specialist services as required. The practice had suitable processes for referring patients to appropriate services such as psychiatry and counselling, including The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) as required.

Updated 17 September 2015

This practice is rated as good for the care of people living in vulnerable circumstances. The practice recognised the needs of people who were vulnerable such as travelling communities and homeless people, those with, alcohol or substance misuse issues, and those with learning disabilities. The practice worked with the health visiting team to engage with travelling communities and promote health screening and childhood immunisations. Staff were trained and understood their responsibilities to report concerns about the welfare of patients to the appropriate agencies.