Archived: The Springhead Medical Centre Also known as Dr Curran & Partners

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Springhead Medical Centre on 8 March 2016. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• The practice responded to and was engaged with notable local groups and stakeholders. For example medical advisors to the NHS 111 out of hours service, local care homes and leading on the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Primary Care Blueprint. This Blueprint sets out to seek new ways of working to improve health and care outcome for patients.

• 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.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Discussions with staff and feedback from patients’ demonstrated staff were highly motivated and were inspired to offer care that was kind, caring and supportive and that met the needs of the population.

• 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 that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• Leadership was reflective at the practice and involved the whole team in a cohesive way, which provided strong and effective decision making around patient care.

• Although already achieving positive outcomes in a number of areas, the practice team wished to improve their services and the experience of patients. They actively explored ways in which to do this.

• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour. This means providers must be open and transparent with service users about their care and treatment, including when it goes wrong.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• There was a clear proactive approach to seeking out and embedding new ways of providing care and treatment to improve outcomes for their patients. For example; innovative I.T. systems were used to drive improved patient care. An example of this was the use of risk profiling of patients to identify those most at risk of admission to hospital. This helped the practice reduce the rate of admissions which allowed them to offer more support to patients. There was a reduction in emergency admissions from 92 per 1000 patients in 2013/14 to 67 per 1000 patients in 2015/16.

• A dedicated patient services manager and other staff had direct responsibility for patients with long term conditions and mental health related conditions. A direct communication route had been made available for efficient and timely access for patients.

• The PPG were pro-active in the practice and conducted regular monthly patient questionnaires and tailored questions to fit patients need, for example changes to the availability of appointments. They were also directly engaged in the contract and procurement process of a new building to site the practice. Additionally, they were actively involved with the contracted architect in the design; build and layout of the new building.

• The ‘dementia support team’ provided regular follow-up calls which ensured consistent care and support. Patients were provided with two directly named dementia champions with direct telephone numbers if they or relative/family members needed to talk or ask for advice on health related matters.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice