Updated 4 May 2022
Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C. - Head Office is located in Ipswich at:
Riverside Clinic
2 Landseer Road
Ipswich
IP3 0AZ
The provider Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C is a community interest company, limited by shares and is owned by 57 GP practices across Suffolk and is a not for profit organisation. Most of the GP practices are independently registered with the CQC. Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C serves a population of approximately 921,000 patients across the county of Suffolk. Services are provided from various locations including GP practices across Suffolk and North-East Essex, and in the local hospitals in Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds and in the community hospital at Felixstowe. The provider holds contracts with Ipswich and East Suffolk, West Suffolk, Mid Essex and North-East Essex Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
There is a Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C board which is made up of the registered manager, a Caldicott guardian, a GP, a responsible person for controlled drugs, safeguarding and information governance leads and six GPs, two GP practice managers and an independent senior non-executive. There is an integrated governance committee (IGC) which is comprised of the medical director, chief nurse, operations director, chief executive officer, financial controller, executive assistant, payroll manager, human resources, governance manager and three non-executive board directors and a service director. The IGC reports directly to the board. There are three review groups; primary care, urgent care and community care. These report to the IGC.
The provider is registered to provide diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. This location is registered to provide diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
Services offered by Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C. are:
Extended GP access (GP+). Suffolk GP+ is for people who need an appointment with a GP, nurse or other health professional in the evenings or at weekends. The service is staffed by GPs, nurse practitioners, physiotherapists and other health professionals. The service operates across Suffolk including the towns of Ipswich, Wickham Market, Felixstowe, Haverhill, Stowmarket, Bury St. Edmunds, Mildenhall, and Sudbury. This service also includes a GP streaming service in the emergency departments of Ipswich and West Suffolk hospitals to ensure patients are seen by the appropriate clinical staff and in a timely manner.
The Felixstowe minor injuries clinic is operated from the local community hospital and is a service for patients to attend with an appointment, following referral from NHS111 or their GP practice. This service operates from 8am to 8pm seven days a week.
The cardiology community clinic is an intermediate outpatient service which runs as an alternative to hospital-based clinics, and is offered at two locations, Ipswich and Woodbridge. The service provides consultations, advice and electrocardiogram (ECG) testing. This is for all patients in East Suffolk.
The Non-obstetric Ultrasound service is offered in 12 GP practice locations and one community setting across Suffolk. The service is for ambulant patients and provides ultrasounds for patients in a convenient location near to their home. This is for all patients in Suffolk.
The North East Essex Diabetes service is a pathway hub to co-ordinate, promote, and ensure, via a single point of access, the provision of a comprehensive range of integrated health services for people with diabetes and their carers.
The Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C clinical model includes primary care development, patient involvement and education and reaching non-engaged patients. This is offered across North East Essex.
The Falls and Fracture Liaison service is for patients who had experienced a fracture and may be at risk from falls. The service visited patients in their own homes and assessed patients which included ensuring they were compliant with their medicines. This is for all patients in West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group area.
The Bowel and Bladder service is a nurse led service and treats and supports patients with urinary or faecal incontinence. This is for all patients in Suffolk.
The Stoma Care service provides a supportive, advisory and educational role to the patient, family and integrated neighbourhood teams to ensure care can be self-managed by the patient or by the team. The service supports the timely discharge of patients who have a new stoma, providing holistic care including clinical advice on stoma care, product fitting and psychological support. This is for all patients in East Suffolk.
Suffolk GP Out of Hours (OOH) service, which patients access via the NHS111 service. The NHS111 team assess patients by telephone and refer to the Out of Hours service, if clinically appropriate. This results in either a telephone consultation, a face to face appointment at a primary care centre or a home visit with a doctor, nurse practitioner or other health care professional. (The primary integrated urgent care provider is Practice Plus Group, who subcontract the integrated urgent care treatment and face to face service to Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C.). The Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C. began providing this service from April 2019. This service is provided across Suffolk. Bases are at Ipswich Hospital, Riverside Clinic Ipswich, Drovers House Bury St Edmunds, Mildenhall, Eye, Sudbury, Saxmundham, Haverhill and Stowmarket.
This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. For example, podiatry. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation.
Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C employs a wide range of clinical and non-clinical skill mix of staff on a permanent, bank, self-employed and agency basis. This includes for example, hospital consultants, GPs, specialist nurses, advanced nurse practitioners and practice nurses, advanced practitioner sonographers, pharmacists, healthcare assistants, and physician associates.
Suffolk GP Federation C.I.C is the provider for one GP practice, Unity Healthcare in Haverhill. This location was not included as part of this review. You can find the report for this inspection by searching for the location name at www.cqc.org.uk.