The Lonsdale Medical Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives

We looked for evidence that staff involved people in decisions about their care and treatment and provided them advice and support. Staff regularly reviewed people’s care and worked with other services to achieve this.At our last assessment, we rated this key question as Good. At this assessment, the rating remains the same.

This service scored 79 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

Feedback from people using the service was positive. People felt involved in any assessment of their needs and felt confident that staff understood their individual needs. Reception staff used digital flags within the care records system to highlight any specific individual needs, such as the requirement for longer appointments or for a translator to be present. Staff checked people’s health, care, and wellbeing needs during health reviews. Clinical staff used templates when conducting care reviews to support the review of people’s wider health and wellbeing. The provider had effective systems to identify people with previously undiagnosed conditions. Staff could refer people with social needs, such as those experiencing social isolation or housing difficulties, to a wellbeing coach.

The service planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

Systems were in place to ensure staff were up to date with evidence-based guidance and legislation. Clinical records we saw demonstrated care was evidence-based. The feedback we received from people included positive comments about outcomes of their care and examples where people had received effective diagnosis and treatment including timely referral for further testing and specialist care.

One of the GP partners had a special interest in mental health and was involved in research and teaching in this field. This GP worked closely with a number of consultant psychiatrists to support people with more serious mental illness in the community. People could also see a mental health nurse at the practice who offered a weekly clinic. We received positive comments from people about the quality of care they had experienced at the practice for mental health problems.

The practice ran a weekly educational session for the GP trainees which were themed around guidelines and the twice-weekly clinical meetings included an educational slot. For example, the team had recently reviewed guidelines on managing respiratory distress in children. The GP trainees told us that the triage system provided excellent learning opportunities as they were co-located with the duty doctor and could discuss guidelines and evidence-based medicine as cases arose.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. They shared thorough assessments of people’s needs when they moved between different services, so people only needed to tell their story once.

Staff had access to the information they needed to appropriately assess, plan, and deliver people’s care, treatment, and support. The practice worked with other services to ensure continuity of care.

The practice had developed good working relationships with other healthcare providers and teams and could demonstrate how they used these for the benefit of people, for example, escalating safeguarding concerns to a specialist health team which led to the referral being accepted and the person receiving this support.

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. The service supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

Staff focussed on identifying risks to people’s health, including those in the last 12 months of their lives, people at risk of developing a long-term condition and those with caring responsibilities. Staff supported national priorities and initiatives to improve population health, including stopping smoking and tackling obesity.

The practice was aware of needs in the local community and participated in schemes that were of relevance, for example, setting up a patient obesity group and a child obesity project. The practice had proactively identified gaps in support, for example, it had started a group for young people on managing anxiety. They also held multiple events within the practice’s wellbeing cafe space, for example, on healthy eating for diabetes and cancer awareness.

The practice had close links with local voluntary organisations to foster community cohesion. This gave people access to a wide range of services and resources, such as befriending, community wellbeing hubs and crisis assistance and advice.

The practice partners were committed to supporting healthy lifestyles across the team and by leading by example. There was a cycle to work scheme and they had invested in gym equipment and area for staff. Staff also had the option of using standing and treadmill desks at the practice.

The practice had signed up to and achieved RCGP Active Practice status which involved demonstrating it was reducing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity among both staff and people using the service.