SWGP Waterside Medical Centre

Updated 27 December 2019

SWGP provides extended hours primary medical services to patients in the South Warwickshire area when GP practices are closed. The administrative base is located at Gainsborough Hall, Russell Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5QB. The provision of extended hours services started in September 2018.

The service covers a population of approximately 280,000 people across the county of South Warwickshire. The extended hours service is provided across six hubs located at Southam, Leamington Spa, Kenilworth, Alcester, Stratford upon Avon and Wellesbourne. The hubs are open seven days per week with day time appointments at weekends. Direct booking is available to all Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) member practices, NHS 111 and GP Out of Hours services. A range of services offers to meet the needs of the local population (services offered may vary by geographic sub-area). This includes a range of appointment types and clinical staff.

Staffing at SWGP consists of GP and practice manager directors, working 1.8 whole time equivalent hours (WTE). There are seven WTE employed staff which includes an IT analyst, extended access manager, extended access co-ordinator, secretary/extended access support, HR Administrator and IT manager. In addition, there are a number of staff on zero hours contracts, working for the extended access service (nurses, advanced nurse practitioners and pharmacists).

We carried out an announced inspection on 22 October 2019. This included a visit to one of the hubs at Waterside Medical Centre, Court Street in Leamington Spa. We spoke with a range of staff during the inspection. This included the director, the medical director/clinical lead, two GPs, the operations manager, the lead nurse, and reception staff. We also spoke with three patients, one of whom was a member of the patient participation group.

Updated 27 December 2019

This service 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 SWGP Waterside Medical Centre on 22nd October 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• There were systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• Routine reviews were conducted to ensure care provided was effective, appropriate and that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management team.
• Policies and procedures were kept under regular review and updated accordingly. There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support effective governance.
• Audit arrangements ensured the quality of services provided was continually monitored and reviewed.

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• Monthly cervical screening clinics provided during extended access hours at four of the hubs had encouraged patients to participate in screening. This had resulted in an increase in the number of smears performed. For example, 18 procedures had been carried out in April 2019. The clinics saw this increased over four months to 35, 45, 64 and 61 accordingly.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care