Archived: The Leighton Buzzard Primary Care Centre

People told us they were very satisfied with the service they had received. They rated their experience of using the service as very good. One person said, 'This is an invaluable service. This is the third time I am using it.' All the people we spoke with said that they would recommend the service to a friend or a family member and that they had confidence in the treatment they received. For example, a person said, 'The doctor was very kind, helpful and thorough."

We found that people were not kept waiting and were seen promptly on arrival. Information was appropriately triaged to the medical team to ensure that people received the appropriate care and treatment.

The centre had effective systems in place to minimise the risk of people acquiring an infection.

We found that there were appropriate arrangements in place to ensure that medicines were recorded, stored, handled and administered safely. Equipment was available in sufficient quantities; and regular checks were undertaken to ensure that they were suitable and safe to use.

There were effective recruitment and selection processes in place to ensure that appropriate checks were undertaken before staff commenced employment. We found that staff were provided with on-going training to enable them to deliver safe and effective care to people.

All the staff we spoke with confirmed they had been trained to deal with medical emergencies, including Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). This showed that the service had systems and processes to ensure the staff were ready to deal with any unforeseen emergencies.

The staff had a working knowledge of safeguarding and described examples of the type of incidents or concerns they would report. The staff were familiar with the whistle blowing process and told us they would not hesitate to use it if for any reason they felt unable to report matters openly to the service manager.

During our visit we saw that there was enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs. The staff spoke with us about being a team and the importance of each person's role within a mobile service.

We looked at people's medical records and found these were detailed, accurate and detailed. This meant people were protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment.