Wells Park Practice

Updated 1 November 2022

Wells Park Practice is a GP practice located in Sydenham in south-east London and is part of the South East London Integrated Care System. The practice provides GP services under a Personal Medical Services contract and is registered to carry out family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures, diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice provides care to approximately 12,500 patients and, according to information published by Public Health England, has a deprivation score of 4 out of 10 (1 being the most deprived). Wells Park Practice cares for a diverse population with 43% of its population from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.

The practice team consists of three GP partners and one non-clinical managing partner. There are ten salaried GPs and five GP registrars with many working part-time hours. The practice is supported by five nurses, three Health Care Assistants (two in training), two PCN pharmacists and two pharmacists provided by the Lewisham Clinical Commissioning Group. The non-clinical managing partner is supported by administrators and receptionists.

The practice is open between 8am am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday and offers extended hours on Mondays from 7am to 8am, on Tuesdays 6.30pm to 8.00pm and 8.30am to midday on the 2nd Saturday of every month. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Updated 1 November 2022

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Wells Park Practice on 29 September 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good. At this inspection we looked at the responsive key question and have rated it ‘good’. The remaining key ratings were carried forward from the previous inspection.

At our previous inspection in October 2019, the practice was rated good overall and for providing safe, effective and well-led services. We rated the provider as requires improvement for providing responsive services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Wells Park Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we carried out this review

This was a focused review to follow up on the responsive services. At the last inspection we found;

• The practice scored below the national average in the National GP Patient Survey in relation to how easy it was to get through to someone at the GP practice on the phone.

We also followed up on several ‘should’ actions identified at the last inspection. Specifically;

• Continue to implement a programme to improve uptake of childhood immunisations and national cancer screening programmes.
• Continue to ensure policies and procedures are followed; for example, the emergency medicines protocol.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic, CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This review was carried out without visiting the location by requesting documentary evidence from the provider and speaking to a staff member and members of the Patient Participation Group (PPG) on the phone.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

• Efforts had been made to improve telephone access to the GP; the practice updated their call system, conducted their own patient survey, increased staff members and engaged with their patients.

In addition;

• The practice had taken steps to improve childhood immunisation uptake. They had recruited a nurse designated to carry out childhood immunisations. The practice continuously followed up on patients who declined appointments for their children and made referrals to health visitors if necessary. Other methods to increase uptake included highlighting the importance of childhood immunisations in monthly newsletters, speaking about childhood immunisations during Patient Participation Group meetings and opening dedicated Saturday clinics.
• The practice had taken steps to encourage cancer screening uptake. The practice sent weekly text reminders to patients, offered opportunistic cervical screening and opened dedicated Saturday clinics.
• The practice ensured policies and procedures, such as the emergency medicines protocol, were followed. We were assured that the practice followed their protocols in monitoring and recording their emergency medicines.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services