ESP Primary Care Hub

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection was in October 2021, and we rated this service Good overall and Requires improvement for the safe key question)

The key questions are rated as follows, as a result of this inspection:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced focused inspection at ESP Primary Care Hub to follow up on a breach of regulations, which meant the focus was on the key question of Safe. The ratings of Good for effective, caring, responsive and well-led carried over from the previous inspection.

At the last inspection in October 2021 we reported a breach of Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment. We asked the provider to make improvements. At this follow up inspection in May 2023 we found improvements had been made and the requirement had been met.

The provider of this service is Eastleigh Southern Parishes Network Limited, a GP federation. The company is made up of the 3[BA2] GP surgeries (Blackthorn Health Centre, Hedge End Medical Centre and the Living Well Partnership West End Surgery). They work together to share resources, skills and experience to provide health and care services for patients in the Eastleigh Southern Parishes area. The provider employs staff at ESP Primary Care Hub (the Hub) to deliver a range of services that are funded from different contracts. These services include a range of primary care appointments with GPs and other health professionals, offered during and outside normal working hours. The hub also offers an advisory service, supported by a clinician, for patients within the primary care network and also in the New Forest. The details are provided in the background section of this report.

The Operations Director and PCN (Primary Care Network) Manager is the registered manager of the service. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We found the provider had made improvements since our last inspection and delivered a safe service.

Our key findings were:

• Systems were in place to manage medicines and prescription stationery safely. Electronic prescribing was the preferred method and paper prescriptions were effectively monitored and controlled.
• Emergency medicines were available, checked and stored safely. The range of medicines had been risk assessed.
• The service held a range of medicines that had been assessed as appropriate for the needs of the patient population.
• The provider had completed medicines audits including audits of non-medical prescribing, to promote safe medicine management.
• Safety alerts were shared with clinicians via email and the provider had set up read-receipts to gain assurance they were received and read.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Extend the all-staff training record to evidence the range of training completed by staff, not only on-line certificated training.
• Maintain up-to-date records of staff training.
• Continue to re-audit referrals to check they are completed.
• Continue to audit the prescribing of non-medical prescribers.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Healthcare