• Doctor
  • GP practice

Archived: Benfield Valley Healthcare Hub

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Old Shoreham Road, Portslade, Brighton, East Sussex, BN41 1XR (01273) 411229

Provided and run by:
Benfield Valley Healthcare Hub

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

9 March 2017

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

The practice was rated good overall and is now rated good for providing safe services.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 23 June 2016. A breach of legal requirements was found during that inspection within the safe domain. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice sent us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements. We conducted a focused inspection on 9 March 2017 to check that the provider had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.

During our previous inspection on 23 June 2016 we found the following areas where the practice must improve:

  • Implement systems for assessing, monitoring and acting on risks in relation to the health and safety of patients, staff and visitors.
  • Take action to address identified concerns with infection prevention and control.
  • Improve the security of blank prescription stationery.

Our previous report also highlighted the following areas where the practice should improve:

  • Continue to take action in order to address areas where lower levels of patient satisfaction have been identified.
  • Ensure that plans to ensure all staff have an annual appraisal are successfully implemented.
  • Keep higher than average exception reporting rates for the quality and outcomes framework under review and ensure action is taken to reduce rates where clinically appropriate.(Exception reporting is the removal of patients from Quality and Outcomes Framework calculations where, for example, the patients are unable to attend a review meeting or certain medicines cannot be prescribed because of side effects).
  • Build on the work undertaken so far to identify carers within the practice in order to increase the number of carers known to the practice and help ensure they receive appropriate support.
  • Ensure that risk assessments accurately identify staff who are likely to be left alone with patients and that appropriate recruitment checks are undertaken

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

During the inspection on 9 March 2017 we found:

  • Systems were now in place for monitoring and acting on risks in relation to the health and safety of patients, staff and visitors.
  • Concerns identified at the last inspection in relation to infection prevention and control had been addressed.
  • Arrangements were now in place for the tracking of blank prescription stationery.

We also found in relation to the areas where the practice should improve:

  • Results from the national GP Survey published in July 2016 showed that patient satisfaction had improved in some areas. For example during this inspection we found that 80% of patients who responded were able to get an appointment or speak to someone last time they tried compared to 63% from the results published in January 2016. However, patient satisfaction was still lower than average in a number of key areas including patients being able to see a preferred GP, GPs involving patients in decisions about their care, treating them with care and concern and explaining tests and treatments. Patient satisfaction with their overall experience of the practice and the number of patients who would recommend the practice was also lower than average. The practice should therefore continue to take action in order to address areas where lower levels of patient satisfaction have been identified.
  • We saw that plans to ensure all staff had an annual appraisal had been implemented.
  • Exception reporting rates had reduced in a number of areas, for example in mental health. However, exception reporting rates for asthma had increased to 30% and were significantly above the national average of 7% and the clinical commissioning group average of 10%. The practice should therefore continue to review exception reporting rates for the quality and outcomes framework and ensure action is taken to reduce rates where clinically appropriate.
  • The practice had built on its work to identify the number of carers on its list and ensure they were signposted to the various avenues of support. For example, the NHS health check template now included a hyperlink to the local carers support information so that this could be printed off for patients. The practice had identified a further 50 carers since our last inspection. The practice had updated its risk assessment to ensure that it accurately identified staff that were likely to be left alone with patients. We saw that appropriate recruitment checks had been undertaken as a result.


Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

23 June 2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Benfield Valley Healthcare Hub on 23 June 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

  • There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
  • Risks to patients were not always assessed and well managed. For example the health and safety of the building and infection control.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
  • Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • The practice had been unable to recruit to vacant GP posts which meant that staffing levels were sometimes insufficient to meet the demands of the population. This had led to cancelled patient appointments.
  • The practice had implemented innovative measures to try and increase GP capacity. This included the recent appointment of additional GPs, a practice based pharmacist and a contract with an independent health care provider for a GP telephone consultation service.
  • Results from the national GP survey showed patient satisfaction was lower than average in a number of areas. For example, patients did not always feel they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. There were lower than average levels of satisfaction in relation to being able to speak with or see the GP they preferred.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available.
  • There was a leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
  • The practice sought the views of patients through the local health forum. There was evidence that these had been acted on.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:-

  • Implement systems for assessing, monitoring and acting on risks in relation to the health and safety of patients, staff and visitors.
  • Take action to address identified concerns with infection prevention and control.
  • Improve the security of blank prescription stationery.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:-

  • Continue to take action in order to address areas where lower levels of patient satisfaction have been identified.
  • Ensure that plans to ensure all staff have an annual appraisal are successfully implemented.
  • Keep higher than average exception reporting rates for the quality and outcomes framework under review and ensure action is taken to reduce rates where clinically appropriate.
  • Build on the work undertaken so far to identify carers within the practice in order to increase the number of carers known to the practice and help ensure they receive appropriate support.
  • Ensure that risk assessments accurately identify staff who are likely to be left alone with patients and that appropriate recruitment checks are undertaken.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice