The Crescent Medical Centre

Updated 10 July 2018

The Crescent Medical Centre situated at the Crescent, Northampton, Northamptonshire is a GP practice which provides primary medical care for approximately 4,138 patients living in Northampton and surrounding areas. There is moderate level of deprivation in the area mainly relating to low income.

The Crescent Medical Centre provide 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 a small ethnic population of Asian, Afro Caribbean, mixed race and Eastern European origin.

The practice has a principal GP (male) and a regular locum female GP. There is a practice nurse who is also a nurse prescriber supported by a health care assistant. There is a practice manager 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. The practice is approved to provide training facilities for new GPs. At the time of our inspection there were no GPs in training.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

When the practice is closed services are provided by Integrated Care 24 Limited via the NHS 111 service.

Updated 10 July 2018

This practice is 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 The Crescent Medical Centre on 24 May 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had 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.
• Clinical performance data was comparable to the national and local data.
• Patients we spoke with told us staff had treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• The practice has achieved the silver level investors in carers standard (awarded by county council, the NHS and Northamptonshire Carers) which recognised efforts made by GP practices in the identification of and support available to carers including the changed culture within the practice to further support carers.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. The practice operated a buddy arrangement with a neighbouring practice and met to share better ways of working and to learn from each other.
• At the time of our inspection there were no access enabled toilet facilities. However planning permission had been obtained to make that provision as well as better access to the practice.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice focused on the needs of patients. The appointment system was responsive and patients told us that it was easy to get through on the telephone to get an appointment and that the receptionists were very helpful. During our inspection we saw an example of the reception staff helping a patient with a clinical issue in a focused way. Results from the July 2017 annual national GP patient survey showed a high level of patient satisfaction on access and the lead GP told us that the reception team had been ranked number one in the local area. The combined efforts of the reception and clinical team ensured timely access to appointments or appropriate referrals.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Complete the implementation of the Accessible Information Standard (a requirement to make sure that patients and their carers can access and understand the information that they are given).
• Ensure the proposals to provide access enabled toilet facilities and better access to the practice are implemented as planned.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 10 July 2018

Updated 10 July 2018

Updated 10 July 2018

Updated 10 July 2018

Updated 10 July 2018

Updated 10 July 2018