Archived: Hartington Street Medical Practice

Updated 30 July 2014

Hartington Street Medical Practice provided primary medical services to 2661 patients living in Barrow in Furness. The practice was open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6pm.

The practice consisted of two adjoined terrace houses. Services were provided from the first and second floors. The GP and nurse led clinics were primarily delivered from the ground floor.

The local clinical commissioning group provided a Medicines Optimisation Pharmacist (a pharmacist who ensures medicines are used in their best way) who held clinics for patients with long-term conditions . Also provided was a midwife who held an Ante Natal clinic one morning a week. A practice nurse delivered all other clinics as per demand.

Patients of the practice could access out of hours primary care from Cumbria Health On Call (CHOC).

Updated 30 July 2014

Hartington Street Medical Practice provided primary medical services to 2661 patients living in Barrow in Furness. The practice was open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6pm.

The service was delivered from one site on Hartington Street. This is the site we inspected.

Overall systems and procedures to ensure the practice was safe were inadequate.

• Formal learning from incidents  was not embedded

• There was not a suitably qualified Safeguarding lead on site.
• Monitoring and management of risks was ineffective.

Overall the practice was effective in meeting the needs of the individual patients. However, improvements were required to ensure systems required for the operation of the practice were effective,

• Systems to promote best practice and changes in legislation were inconsistent.
• The practice was not proactive in monitoring the quality of care,
• Multi-disciplinary working was informal, leaving a risk of uncoordinated care.

Overall the practice was caring.

• All patients we spoke with spoke highly of the practice with many saying they would recommend it.
• Staff we spoke with showed commitment to their role and promoted a positive patient experience.
• Patients told us they felt involved with and understood their healthcare and support needs.

Overall the service was responsive to the individual patient’s needs. However the practice required improvement in systems to ensure it remained effective

• A formal communication route with patients had not been developed
• Patients’ suggestions were not always acted upon
• The practice did not engage with the wider health community to improve services for patients at the practice.

Overall the service was not well led.

• The practice was not managed proactively and dealt with issues reactively from day to day.
• There was not a systematic arrangement for the identification and management of risks.
• Staff were working under considerable pressure to meet patients’ needs.

The GP was not meeting regulation 10 Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.

The GP was not meeting regulation 22 Staffing.