North Harbour Medical Group - Care Quality Commission

Background to this inspection

Updated 13 December 2016

North Harbour Medical Group is based within Cosham Health Centre, Vectis way, Cosham, Portsmouth, Hampshire. PO6 3AW. The building is owned by NHS property services and is shared by other community services such as podiatry and health visiting. The building is built over a car park, which provides disabled parking. There is a large long ramp into the building and a lift from the car park for wheelchair access. There are electronic opening doors into the practice and all administration and clinical rooms are situated on one level. Cosham Health Centre is close to a bus stop and a rail station providing good public transport links.

The practice serves a registered population of approximately 8,959 patients. The practice is located in an area of the country with more deprivation and higher demand for health services. The majority of the population identify as white British, with some Asian and Caribbean residents.

The practice comprises five GP partners, and four practice nurses. The practice team consists of a practice manager, assistant practice manager and nine administration and reception staff. There are five GP partners who all work full time; two of the partners are female.

The practice operates a personal list system which has been established over many years. On the practice website this is described as the ethos of traditional medical practice. It is a system where patients, are looked after by a named GP. This allows the GP to continue care efficiently, handle results and information and deal with enquiries from other health professionals.

The practice is open between 7.30am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are from 8am to 12.30pm every morning and from 1.30pm to 6.30pm daily. Extended opening hours are offered in the evening from Monday to Thursday 7.30am to 8am and on Monday mornings 6.30pm to 7pm.

When the practice is closed, patients are encouraged to use the NHS 111 service and an NHS Walk-in centre a few miles away. However, the practice told us that due to the proximity to the local accident and emergency (A&E) department patients often chose to go there.

This practice provides services under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract including maternity, long-term condition monitoring and minor surgery.

The services provides is regulated activities from a single location at North Harbour Medical Group, Cosham Health Centre, Vectis Way, Cosham, Portsmouth, Hampshire. PO6 3AW.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 13 December 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a focused follow up inspection of North Harbour Medical Group on 8 November 2016. This inspection was performed to check on the progress of actions taken following an inspection we made on 1 March 2016. These included;

A lack of governance arrangements in the practice for the administration of vaccines under patient group directions (PGD) to ensure staff were competently trained and that the PGD was completed in a timely manner to ensure nurses did not practice outside of the legal framework.
A lack of systems to ensure the practice was able to respond to medical emergencies. Specifically, improving the processes for managing emergency medicines, defibrillator, oxygen cylinders and labelling of the anaphylaxis medicines kit to minimise risks.
A need to improve governance arrangements for prescription tracking and monitoring.
The provider should raise awareness of the number of carers on the practice carer’s register.

Following the inspection in March 2016 the provider sent us an action plan which detailed the steps they would take to meet their breaches of regulation. During our latest inspection on 8 November 2016 we found the provider had made the necessary improvements in delivering safe, well led services.

This report covers our findings in relation to the requirements and should be read in conjunction with the comprehensive inspection report published in May 2016. This can be done by selecting the 'all reports' link for North Harbour Medical Group on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Our key findings across the areas we inspected in this focused follow up inspection were as follows:

There were now well organised governance arrangements in place for the administration of vaccines under patient group directions (PGD) to ensure staff were competently trained and that the PGDs had been completed in a timely manner.
Systems were now in place to ensure the practice was able to respond to medical emergencies.
Improved governance arrangements for prescription tracking and monitoring were in place in line with guidance from NHS Protect.
The provider had raised awareness of the number of carers on the practice carer’s register and their numbers had increased accordingly.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice