• Doctor
  • GP practice

Silverdale Family Practice

Overall: Outstanding read more about inspection ratings

South Hetton Health Centre, Front Street, South Hetton, Durham, County Durham, DH6 2TH (0191) 517 1055

Provided and run by:
Silverdale Family Practice

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 22 January 2019

Silverdale Family Practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services. The practice provides services to around 5,728 patients from;

  • South Hetton Health Centre, Front St, South Hetton, Co. Durham DH6 2TH.

South Hetton Health Centre is in purpose built premises; all patient services are on the ground floor. There is a car park behind the practice, dedicated disabled parking bays and step free access.

The practice has three GP partners; two male and one female whole time equivalent (WTE) 2.3. There are two salaried GPs WTE 1. There is an nurse practitioner (WTE 1), a practice nurse (WTE 0.6), and one healthcare assistant (WTE 0.9). There is a business manager (WTE 1). There are seven (WTE 6.3) staff who undertake administration duties.

The practice teaches medical students (from first to fifth year) and GP registrars.

The practice provides late evening, weekend and bank holiday appointments;

they are part of the local GP federation of GP practices who work together to provide appointments with GPs, nurses or health care assistants outside of their normal working hours. Patients can contact the practice reception team to arrange appointments. When this service is not provided patients requiring urgent medical care can contact the out of hours provided by the NHS 111 service.

The practice is part of NHS Durham Dales Easington and Sedgefield clinical commissioning group (CCG). The practice provides services based on a General Medical Services (GMS) contract agreement for general practice.

Information from Public Health England places the area in which the practice is located in the third most deprived decile. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services. Average male life expectancy at the practice is 79 years, which is the same as the national average. Average female life expectancy at the practice is 81 years, which is lower than the national average of 83 years.

Overall inspection

Outstanding

Updated 22 January 2019

This practice is rated as Outstanding overall. (Previous inspection August 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Outstanding

Are services well-led? - Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Silverdale Family Practice on 15 November 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

  • 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 consistently reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
  • Feedback from patients who used the service, those close to them and external stakeholders was continually positive about the way staff cared for patients.
  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported access to appointments was good, staff confirmed this.
  • Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care. They had an inspiring shared purpose, strived to deliver and motivated staff to succeed.
  • Staff told us they felt supported and engaged with managers and there was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice participated in the Healthier and Wealthier scheme where free benefits and welfare advice was given to patients. The clinicians identified patients in need of advice and arranged a call-back with a trained adviser. As a result of this patients with a ‘financial outcome’ were on average £3,713 better off. Twenty patient’s ‘Warwick-Edinburgh’ score (a tool used to assess patients’ mental wellbeing) improved from an average of 2.38 to 3.25 (out of 5) after they had received the advice.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice