Archived: Taw Hill Medical Practice

Updated 6 March 2019

The provider, Taw Hill Medical Partnership, delivers regulated activities from its sole site at:

Taw Hill Medical Practice,

Aiken Way,

Swindon.

SN25 1UH

Tel: 01793 709500

Website: www.tawhillsurgery.nhs.uk

Taw Hill Medical Practice is based in Swindon, Wiltshire, and is one of 24 practices serving the NHS Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area. A staffed reception area is located on the ground floor, and the practice has consulting/treatment rooms on the ground floor.

The provider entered into a partnership arrangement with Integral Medical Holdings (IMH) in April 2018. The role of IMH is to offer non-clinical support such as human resources, administration, and standardisation of policies and auditing systems.

The practice has around 12,600 registered patients from an area surrounding the practice and Swindon town centre. The practice age distribution is broadly in line with the national average, with most patients being of working age or older.

The practice has an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contract to deliver healthcare services. An APMS contract is a locally negotiated contract to commission or provide services that the provider considers necessary to meet all reasonable healthcare requirements.

Taw Hill Medical Practice is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Surgical procedures
• Family Planning

There are two GP partners (both male), and four salaried GPs (one male, three female). The wider clinical team consists of two nurses, one health care assistant (HCA), and a phlebotomist. The practice team includes a General Manager, along with patient support officers (PSOs) and an office supervisor.

Ninety-two per-cent of the practice population describes itself as white, and around 8% as having a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. The practice boundary has an estimated low level of socio-economic deprivation: a local area measure recorded a score of 10, on a scale of 1-10, with a higher score indicating a less deprived area. (Note that the circumstances and lifestyles of the people living in an area affect its deprivation score. Not everyone living in a deprived area is deprived and not all deprived people live in deprived areas).

Taw Hill Medical Practice is open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and the practice will take calls during these times. Routine and urgent GP appointments are also available during these times. The practice has opted out of providing Out-Of-Hours services to its own patients. Outside of normal practice hours, patients can access the NHS 111 service, and an Out-Of-Hours GP is available at Swindon Walk-In Centre. Information about the Out-Of-Hours service was available on the practice website, in the patient registration pack, and as an answerphone message.

Updated 6 March 2019

We carried out a comprehensive inspection at Taw Hill Medical Practice on 25 January 2019, as part of our inspection programme. The provider was given limited announcement of the inspection due to concerns raised about another service that is also part of the same partnership arrangement. Taw Hill Medical Practice has not been previously inspected under the current provider.

Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based 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 Requires Improvement overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

• Are services safe? – Requires Improvement
• Are services effective? – Requires Improvement
• Are services caring? – Good
• Are services responsive? – Requires Improvement
• Are services well-led? – Requires Improvement.

The population groups (for example, older people and those experiencing poor mental health) are all rated as Requires Improvement.

This means that:

• Patients had good outcomes because they received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Patients were supported, treated with dignity and respect and were involved as partners in their care.
• People’s needs were met by the way in which services were organised and delivered.

However, the leadership, governance and culture of the practice did not always promote the delivery of high quality person-centred care. For example:

• There was no evidence of systems to ensure audits were conducted regularly.
• Recruitment checks for staff did not include all information relevant to employment in their roles.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure care and treatment are provided in a safe way for service users.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
• Ensure staff employed are suitably qualified to carry out their role.
• Ensure recruitment procedures are established and operated effectively.
• Ensure effective care is provided for service users with diabetes, so that there is lower exception reporting and healthier outcomes for these indicators.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to identify carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they require.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 6 March 2019

Updated 6 March 2019

Updated 6 March 2019

Updated 6 March 2019

Updated 6 March 2019

Updated 6 March 2019