Imeary Medical Group

Updated 6 July 2018

Imeary Street Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services. The practice provides services to just over 3,000 patients from the following location: 78 Imeary St, South Shields NE33 4EG. We visited this address as part of the inspection. The practice is part of NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Deprivation indicators place this practice in an area with a score of four out of ten. A lower number means the more deprived an area is. People living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services. This practice had slightly lower levels of deprivation when compared to the CCG, but higher than the England average.

The practice occupies a converted building. Consultation rooms and patient areas are on the ground floor and are fully accessible for patients with mobility needs. On-street parking is available close to the premises.

The practice has two GP partners (one male and one female), one practice nurse, and one healthcare assistant. These are supported by a team of administrative and management staff.

Patients can also access appointments across the South Tyneside area until 8pm each weekday, Saturday 10am- 2pm, and Sunday 10am- 1pm, as part of the South Tyneside Health Collaboration. When the practice is closed patients are directed to the NHS 111 service. This information is also available on the practices’ website and in the practice leaflet.

Updated 6 July 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall.

We last inspected the service in June 2015, when it was rated as good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

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 comprehensive inspection at Imeary Street Surgery on 26 April 2018, as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes. There was an open and honest culture around incident reporting.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. Quality data showed the practice performed well in management of long term conditions such as asthma and diabetes. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• Patients spoke highly of how they were treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Patient survey results showed that patients consistently reported higher levels of satisfaction compared to the local area and national results. Patient feedback on the day was received in large numbers and was consistently positive.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it, with again consistently higher results in the National GP Patient Survey than local and national averages.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had designed a new dementia review process to make this more holistic, incorporating areas such as falls risk and continence. While yet to carry out a full review of this service, the practice had sought informal feedback which was positive.
• The practice had developed a comprehensive Mental Capacity Act Policy, which the practice had shared and had since been adopted by other practices in the area.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Carry out yearly fire drills.
• Review identified actions in infection control audits.
• Carry out a risk assessment for the updating of DBS checks.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 6 July 2018

Updated 6 July 2018

Updated 6 July 2018

Updated 6 July 2018

Updated 6 July 2018

Updated 6 July 2018