Archived: Wandle Valley Health Centre

Wandle Valley Health Centre is owned by AT Medics and provides personal medical services for approximately 2.000 people. It is an accredited training practice and employs three part time doctors, a practice manager, a practice nurse, a healthcare assistant and three administrative and reception staff. During our inspection visit we were able to speak with the principle General Practioner, (GP) who is also the registered manager, the practice manager, practice nurse and two members of the administration team.

We were also able to speak with three patients who had attended the surgery that day. They told us that they were very happy with the practice. They said that they did not experience any problems making appointments and told us 'it's really easy to get an appointment' and 'this is the easiest place I have ever been to when it comes to getting an appointment'. They also said that they found the staff 'very helpful' and 'very friendly'.

All the people we spoke with confirmed that they felt involved in discussions about their health care and that the doctors always had time to listen to them. One person commented "I think it's fantastic here I wouldn't want to change."

One person did say that they would have liked the option of being able to see a female doctor. The practice manager told us that this was something that they were aware of and it was being considered.

We looked at the results both from the patient surveys undertaken by the practice and the 2012-13 GP practice survey run on behalf of NHS England. These showed that the majority of patients who had taken part were satisfied with the service. The practice survey indicated that and 92% of those people surveyed would definitely or probably recommend the practice to people they knew.