Archived: Sunnyside Surgery

Updated 15 October 2015

Sunnyside Surgery is located in an urban area in Clevedon, North Somerset. They have approximately 7055 patients registered.

The practice operates from one location:

Sunnyside Surgery

4 Sunnyside Road

Clevedon

North Somerset

BS21 7TA

It is sited in a converted two storey building. The consulting and treatment rooms for the practice are situated on the ground floor. The practice has six consulting rooms, one for each GP Partner and one allocated for any trainee GPs on placement. There are three treatment rooms (for use by nurses, health care assistants and phlebotomists); reception and records room; and a waiting room area. Upstairs there are administrative offices, a meeting room and a staff rest area. Attached to the building there is a pharmacy. There is limited patient parking immediately outside the practice with spaces reserved for those with disabilities.

The practice is made up of four GP partners, two salaried GPs providing 38 sessions per week. There is a nurse prescriber who runs minor illness clinics, and the practice manager, working alongside two qualified nurses and three health care assistants. The practice is supported by an administrative team made of medical secretaries, receptionists and administrators. The practice is open from 8.00am until 6.30pm Monday to Friday for on the day urgent and pre-booked routine GP and nurse appointments.

The practice has a Personal Medical Services contract with NHS England (a locally agreed contract negotiated between NHS England and the practice). The practice is contracted for a number of enhanced services including extended hours access, facilitating timely diagnosis and support for patients with dementia, minor surgery, patient participation, immunisations and unplanned admission avoidance.

The practice is a training practice with two trainers, and also offers placements to medical students and sixth form students.

The practice does not provide out of hour’s services to its patients, this is provided by BrisDoc. Contact information for this service is available in the practice and on the website.

Patient Age Distribution

0-4 years old: 5.1%

5-14 years old: 9.52%

15-44 years old: 30.1%

45-64 years old: 29.66%

65-74 years old: 12.54%- higher than the national England average.

75-84 years old: 8.4% - higher than the national England average.

85+ years old: 4.8% - higher than the national England average.

Information from NHS England indicates the practice is in an area of low deprivation with a much higher than national average number of patients in nursing homes.

Updated 15 October 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sunnyside Surgery on 18 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also rated as good for providing services for all of the population groups.

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. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted upon.

• The practice facilities were designed and equipped to meet patients’ treatment needs.
• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.

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

Importantly the provider should

• Develop consistent systems for recording meeting minutes and significant events so they demonstrate the action taken and the shared learning. This would contribute to the quality monitoring processes.
• Further develop the GP buddy system to cover absences.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management. Patients diagnosed with long term conditions were supported through a range of clinics held for specific conditions such as, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure. Nurse led clinics and home review visits were available to patients diagnosed with long term conditions such as diabetes. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All of these patients had a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. Patients receiving palliative care, those with cancer diagnosis and patients likely to require unplanned admissions to hospital were added to the Out of Hours system to share information and patient choices and decisions with other service providers. The practice participated in research programmes specifically for patients with long term conditions.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. There was joint working with midwives, health visitors and school nurses. The practice worked to provide inclusive services for younger patients, such as hosting the ‘No Worries’ initiative which enables young patients to access sexual health care.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older patients in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, emergency admission avoidance. We found integrated working arrangements with community teams such as the community lead nurse for older people. The practice also supported older patients in care homes and each home was visited by a specific GP. The practice provided GP cover for inpatient rehabilitation beds at the local community hospital and safe haven beds in care homes. The practice worked closely with carers and two staff members acted as the carer’s champions.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the service availability it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs of this age group, such as NHS Health checks for those between 40 and 74 years. The practice offered good access to GPs for telephone consultations.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including patients with dementia). The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of patients experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. The practice supports two care homes specifically for patients living with dementia. The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations such as talking therapies, the practice also hosted counselling sessions.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. They held a register of vulnerable patients such as those with a learning disability. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable patients. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours. Patients could access additional services onsite such as substance misuse services.