Archived: St Werburgh Medical Practice

Updated 23 July 2015

St Werburgh Medical Practice provides primary medical services in Rochester Kent from Monday to Friday. The practice is open between 8.30am - 12.30pm and 3pm to 6pm Monday - Friday. Extended hours from 6.30pm to 7.30pm are available on Tuesday and 7am - 8am on Wednesday and Thursday. The nurses also offer extended hours each Friday 7am - 8am and alternate Tuesdays 7am - 8am. Balmoral Gardens, Community Healthy Living Centre, Gillingham is closed on Thursday afternoon and Stoke Village Hall, Lower Stoke, Rochester is closed on Wednesday afternoon.

St Werburgh Medical Practice is situated within the geographical area of NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). St Werburgh Medical Practice is responsible for providing care to 11,700 patients across three practices. The practice had a higher than average working age population. The practice is a training practice and has its own dispensary.

Services are delivered from:

98 Bells Lane

Hoo, St Werburgh

Rochester

Kent

ME3 9HU

Balmoral Gardens

Community Healthy Living Centre

Gillingham

Kent

ME7 4PN

Stoke Village Hall

Mallard Way

Lower Stoke

Rochester

Kent

ME3 9ST

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. There is information available to patients on how to access out of hours care through the NHS 111 service.

Updated 23 July 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St Werburgh Medical Practice on 09 December 2014. Overall the practice is rated as good. Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. The practice was also good for providing services for the populations groups we rate.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored appropriately reviewed and addressed and learning was routinely shared with staff.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patient outcomes were at or above average for the locality and good practice guidance was referenced and used routinely.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients were able to book routine appointment s with the GP at a time that suited them. Urgent appointments were available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people with long term conditions. There were emergency processes and referrals made for patients in this group who had a sudden deterioration in health. When needed longer appointments and home visits were available. The practice had an electronic register of patients with long term conditions and had a recall system to help ensure patients were called for a review annually. All recall letters were followed up by a telephone call to help patients understand the need to attend reviews. For those patients with the most complex needs GPs worked with relevant health and social care professionals to deliver a joined up multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of families, children and young people. There were systems for identifying and following-up vulnerable families and who were at risk. Immunisation rates were good for all standard childhood immunisations.

Appointments were available outside of school hours for children and those with long term conditions. The practice arranged appointments and reviews during school holidays where possible. All of the staff were responsive to parents’ concerns and ensured parents could have same day appointments for children who were unwell.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of older people. Nationally reported data showed the practice had outcomes hat were in line with national averages for conditions commonly found amongst older people.

The practice offered personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population. The practice work with other health and social care providers and with out of hours providers to ensure continuity of care.

The practice was responsive to the needs of older patients. The GP provided home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs. Older patients were offered on the day appointments or telephone consultations. The practice had a policy governing appointments for older patients that helped ensure they were seen by a GP in a timely and appropriate manner.

There were care plans for patients at risk of unplanned hospital admissions as well as patients aged 75 years and over who were vulnerable. The practice was proactive in recognising carers, recorded carer’s details and gave support packs to carers.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The practice offered a full range of health promotion and screening which reflected the needs for this age group. Patients were provided with a range of healthy lifestyle support including smoking cessation. The practice offered NHS health checks to patients between the ages of 40 to 75. The practice had extended opening hours enabling people to make appointments outside normal working hours. Appointments could be booked in advance, online, over the telephone or in person.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice maintained a register of patients who experienced mental health problems. The register supported clinical staff to offer patients an annual appointment for a health check and a medication review. The practice worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health including those with dementia. Patients experiencing poor mental health were given telephone call reminders on the day of their appointment to remind then to attend their appointment; in the event patients do not want to come into the practice a home visit would be arranged. The practice had sign-posted patients experiencing poor mental health to various support groups and voluntary organisations, including referrals to counselling services.

Patients who experienced difficulties attending appointments at busy periods they were offered appointments at the beginning or end of the day to reduce anxiety.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice had carried out annual health checks for patients with learning disabilities and offered them longer appointments where required. The practice provided an interpreter service for patients whose first language was not English.

The practice worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable patients.

Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children.