Archived: Fir Park Medical Centre

Updated 18 July 2016

Appleton Village Surgery is practice is situated in old residential buildings. There were 10885 patients on the practice register at the time of our inspection. The practice is managed by two GP partners. There are three salaried GPs and the practice is a training practice and has two foundation 2 GPs. The practice also uses regular locum GPs. There are two healthcare assistants, three practice nurses and a nurse clinician. Members of clinical staff are supported by a practice manager, reception and administration staff.

The practice is open 8am to 6.30pm every weekday. Clinic times vary depending whether patients require a GP or nurse appointment. Appointments are available between 8.30am and 12.45pm and from 1.15pm to 6.30pm. When patients call the surgery, they are given a time for a clinician to call the patient back to be triaged to assess the need for an appointment regardless of when they called during the day. The length of the appointment was then tailored to meet the needs of the patient and to take into account other factors such as whether the patient needed to be seen at home.

Extended surgery hours are offered on Wednesdays between 6.30pm to 7pm and Friday mornings between 7am to 8am. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the GP out of hours service, provided by Urgent Care 24 by calling 111.

The practice has a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract and has enhanced services contracts which include childhood vaccinations. 

Updated 18 July 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Appleton Village Surgery on 6 January 2016. Breaches of legal requirements were found. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to Regulation 15 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 premises and equipment.

We undertook this focused inspection on the 6 July 2016 to check that they had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the requirement and issues identified in the previous report. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Appleton Village Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings were:

The practice had addressed the breaches of regulations and other issues identified during the previous inspection and made improvements including:

• Completed all electrical installation remedial work to ensure the premises were safe.
• A new protocol and monitoring system in place for emergency medications carried in GPs’ bags.
• Updated control of substances hazardous to health risk assessments and had ensured all containers for substances were clearly labelled.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 11 February 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people with long term conditions.  The practice had registers in place for several long term conditions including diabetes and asthma. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care. The practice offered a range of services to help manage long term conditions such as a phlebotomy service, 24 hour blood pressure monitoring and access to an ECG machine to monitor the heart.

Updated 11 February 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for families, children and young people. The practice regularly liaised with health visitors to review vulnerable children and new mothers. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. The practice held weekly immunisation clinics.

Updated 11 February 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and offered home visits and care home visits. The practice participated in meetings with other healthcare professionals to discuss any concerns. There was a named GP for the over 75s. 

Updated 11 February 2016

The practice is as rated good for providing services for working age people. The needs of this population group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible. For example, the practice offered extended hours on a Wednesday evening and Friday morning and online appointment bookings.

Updated 11 February 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people experiencing poor mental health. Patients experiencing poor mental health received an invitation for an annual physical health check. Those that did not attend had alerts placed on their records so they could be reviewed opportunistically.  The practice worked with local mental health teams and there were specific mental health clinics available. The practice actively screened patients for dementia and referred patients when necessary to local clinics.

Updated 11 February 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people whose circumstances make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks and longer appointments and specific clinics were available for people with a learning disability.