Archived: Sterling Medical Centre

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice delivers primary care under a Personal Medical Services (PMS) Contract between themselves and NHS England for patients living in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and surrounding areas. The practice has two GP partners, who are both male. They are part of the NHS North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). There are approximately 2,300 patients registered at Stirling Medical Centre.

The practice opening times are from Monday to Friday 09.30am – 17.00pm. In addition, there are extended hours appointments available on Wednesday evenings to 18.30pm. There are no Saturday appointments available at Stirling Medical Centre. Early appointments are available at the practice branch New Waltham Surgery from 08.00am to 12.30pm. The practice does not provide an out-of-hours service to their own patients directly and patients are automatically diverted to the local out-of-hours service Prime care when the surgery is closed.

Updated 8 May 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Stirling Medical Centre on 21 January 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. There were emergency processes in place and regular review took place for patients whose health deteriorated suddenly. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. Patients in this group had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, the named GP and or specialist nurses worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. Immunisation rates were in-line with CCG averages for all standard childhood immunisations. Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals, and we saw evidence to confirm this. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. The practice offered ‘together appointments’ and had regular communication between health visitors, school nurses and safeguarding teams as appropriate.

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of this group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering easily accessible appointment system and telephone triage. We saw that the practice provided a range of services patients could access at times that best suited them or close to their work by accessing an appointment in another branch of the practice.

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). People experiencing poor mental health had received an annual physical health check. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. It also carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia.

The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations including MIND, CRUISE and Open Minds. It had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency (A&E) where they may have been experiencing poor mental health. Staff had received training on how to care for people with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 8 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks for people with a learning disability and offered longer appointments for those who required it.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. It had good open communication links with veterans outreach service ‘open minds’. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.