Background to this inspection
Updated
3 April 2020
The Keys Family Practice is part of the Modality Partnership. Modality Partnership is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a partnership, with several services throughout England. The Keys Family Practice is located in Walsall, West Midlands. The practice is part of the NHS Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group. The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, and treatment of disease disorder or injury.
The practice holds an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contact with NHS England. An APMS contract allows the practice to have a contract with NHS and other non-NHS health care providers to deliver enhanced and general medical services to meet the needs of the local community. The contract is time limited.
The practice operates from Willenhall Health Centre, Field Street, Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 2NY.
There are approximately 4,641 patients of various ages registered and cared for at the practice. Nineteen and a half per cent of the people in the practice area are from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. The practice provides GP services in an area considered to be almost the most deprived within its locality. Demographically the practice has higher than average patient population aged under 18 years, with 26.5% falling into this category, compared with the CCG average of 21% and the national average of 24%. Thirteen per cent of the practice population is above 65 years which is lower than the local CCG average of 16% and the national average of 17%. The percentage of patients with a long-standing health condition is 49% which is below the local CCG average and above the national average. The practice life expectancy for patients is 77 years for males and 82 years for females which is below the national average.
The staffing consists of:
- A GP partner (female), two part time salaried GPs (male) and two long term locums (female).
- A locum advanced nurse practitioner, a practice nurse and a health care assistant.
- A practice manager supported by a team of reception/administrative staff.
The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm every day except Tuesday, when it is open until 8pm. When the practice is closed patients are directed towards the out of hours provider via the NHS 111 service. Patients also have access to the Extended GP Access Service between 6.30pm and 9pm on weekdays, 10am to 3pm on weekends, and 11am to 1.30pm on bank holidays.
Additional information about the practice is available on their website at modalitypartnership.nhs.uk/your-gp-practice/west-midlands/gp/the-keys-family-practice
Updated
3 April 2020
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Keys Family Practice on 11 February 2020 as part of our inspection programme. On 12 December 2019 we undertook a review of the governance arrangements at provider level and reviewed the corporate policies, procedures and systems in place across the organisation. During this inspection, we looked at whether governance arrangements were embedded and used by staff working at the practice.
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 have rated this practice as good overall, and in safe, caring, responsive and well led, and requires improvement in effective. We rated each population group as good except for families, children and young people and working age people which we rated as requires improvement in the effective domain. This was because the targets for childhood immunisation uptake and cervical cancer screening had not been met.
We found that:
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs and was planned and delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
- Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care, support and treatment and worked together and with other organisations to deliver effective care and treatment.
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- Patients told us they had seen improvements at the practice, although commented that it was still work in progress. They told us there had been issues with the telephone system, but this now seemed to have been resolved. They also said that the availability of on-line appointments had improved. However, they expressed reservations about reception staff asking the reason for requesting an appointment and did not always wish to share this information.
- Staff told us there had been challenges at the practice following the change in provider. They told us the changes to the staff team had made a real difference to the culture with the practice and morale had improved.
- Staff told us the relationship within the staff team had improved, and staff were supportive of each other. They said the daily huddles had improved communication within the practice.
- The culture of the practice and the way it was led and managed drove the delivery and improvement of high-quality, person-centred care.
- Staff told us that the management team were approachable, and they felt valued and supported in their work.
- There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. For example: sharing learning from audits, significant events and complaints across the staff team.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Explore and implement strategies to meet the minimum 90% target for uptake of childhood immunisations.
- Explore and implement strategies to increase the uptake of cervical screening.
- Explore and implement strategies to increase the uptake of breast and bowel cancer screening.
- Proactively identify any young carers.
- Explore and implement strategies to maintain patient confidentiality in the main waiting area.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care