Archived: Theobald Centre

Updated 7 December 2018

Theobald Centre situated at 119-121 Theobald Street, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire is a GP practice which provides primary medical care for approximately 9,339 patients living in Borehamwood and the surrounding areas. The practice had a registered manager who was also the provider and lead GP at the practice.

Theobald Centre provides primary care services to local communities under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract, which is a nationally agreed contract between general practices and NHS England. The practice population is predominantly white British along with small ethnic populations of Asian and Eastern European origin.

The practice currently has a GP principal and one salaried GP. The practice is supported by eight long term GP locums. A choice of male and female GPs is available for patient consultation. There is a practice nurse. There is an interim practice manager, whilst the practice recruits permanently to the post, who is supported by a team of administrative and reception staff. The local NHS trust provides health visiting and community nursing services to patients at this practice.

Patient care is provided on the ground floor. There is a car park outside the practice with adequate disabled parking available.

The practice is open Monday to Friday from 8am until 6.30pm. The practice offers extended opening on Monday until 8pm. On one Saturday per month the practice is open from 9am until 12 noon. There are a number of access routes including telephone consultations, on the day appointments and advance pre-bookable appointments.

When the practice is closed services are provided by Herts Urgent Care via the 111.

Updated 7 December 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Theobald Centre on 5 September 2017. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. We found that the practice needed to make a number of improvements to the premises and improve the governance arrangements in place at the practice. The full comprehensive report on the September 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Theobald Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced follow up comprehensive inspection carried out on 11 October 2018 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach in regulation related to good governance that we identified in our previous inspection on 5 September 2017. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The premises had been subject to a refurbishment programme and several improvements had been made to the cleanliness and suitability of the environment.
• 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.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff involved patients and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were positive about the GPs working at the practice and had confidence in the care and treatment they received.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it. Patient feedback was positive.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• There was effective and efficient use of IT systems within the practice which enabled good quality assurance processes to monitor quality of care and treatment.
• The staff team were happy in their work and felt supported by the provider and their colleagues. There was a positive and supportive culture within the practice.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review recruitment procedures to ensure that all staff are subject to full recruitment checks as required by law.
• Review storage arrangements for emergency equipment and medicines in order that these are stored appropriately to reduce risk and are easily accessible for staff.
• Establish a mechanism to enable the practice to to obtain effective lines of communication between patients and the provider and management at the service.
• Review and work to improve patient uptake in relation to national screening programmes in particular, bowel and cervical screening.
• Continue to monitor and improve national GP patient survey results and patient satisfaction in particular, areas relating to telephone access.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 7 December 2018

Updated 7 December 2018

Updated 7 December 2018

Updated 7 December 2018

Updated 7 December 2018

Updated 7 December 2018