Medicare Medical Services LLP Also known as Edmonton GP Walk-In Centre

Updated 14 June 2017

Edmonton GP Walk-In Centre provides non appointment based, face to face GP consultations for patients requiring immediately necessary GP care at weekends and on bank holidays.

The service commenced in 2010 and operates between 8am to 8pm at weekends and on Bank Holidays. Registration is not necessary and on average 250 patients per week are seen. The service operates from the ground floor of a purpose built and accessible heath centre.

Edmonton GP Walk-In Centre is provided by Medicare Medical Services LLP, which provides clinical and administrative staff resourced from a GP surgery which it operates from the same health centre on weekdays. Edmonton GP Walk-In Centre draws on a rota of nine, part time male and female GPs and regular locum GPs offering 15-minute appointments provided in parallel by two GPs. Administrative support is provided by a practice manager and a team of reception and administrative staff.

In 2016, Enfield CCG additionally commissioned Medicare Medical Services LLP to deliver one of four borough wide GP access hubs from the health centre: providing Monday to Friday evening extended hours opening. Although the GP access service and in hours GP surgery are provided from the same building, this inspection report relates only to Edmonton GP Walk-In Centre.

Updated 14 June 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Medicare Medical Services LLP (also known as Edmonton GP Walk-In Centre) on 25 March 2017. The centre provides care for unregistered (walk-in) patients. Overall the service is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for recording, reporting and learning from significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ care needs were assessed and delivered in a timely way according to need.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• The service managed patients’ care and treatment in a timely way.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• The service told us that its commissioners had only recently requested monthly performance monitoring reports but we did not see evidence that the staff had formally met to review these reports and to see where improvements to the service could be made.

• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.

• The service was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. For example, we noted that the local area was relatively deprived and staff told us that many local people worked zero hour contracts which required attendance at work at short notice. Staff and patients spoke positively about how the service enabled flexible, non appointment based care to be provided which could accommodate patients’ employment commitments.

• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The service proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Ensure that there are systems in place to ensure that the processes and policies for safeguarding vulnerable adults are kept up to date with latest guidance and legislation.

• Ensure a copy of its Business Continuity Plan is stored off site.

• Consider increasing the use of clinical audit, in order to drive quality improvements.

• Consider developing a performance monitoring protocol to review and assess where improvements can be made; and to enable analyses of how long it takes to be seen at different times of the day.

• Review its protocols to see how it can improve on the time taken for patients’ notes to be sent to their registered GP following a consultation.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice