Archived: The Maytrees Practice

Updated 19 February 2015

The Maytrees Practice, Eastville Health Centre, East Park, Bristol. BS5 6YA; is located close to the city centre of Bristol. The practice covers the areas of Easton, Eastville, Fishponds, Greenbank, Redfield, Stapleton, St. Werburghs, Whitehall and St Judes.

The practice is part of the Bristol area clinical commissioning group and has approximately 4,200 patients. The area the practice serves has a high number of patients from different cultural backgrounds with about 40% of patients from Black and other minority ethnic groups. Patient turnover is high due to the temporary nature of the local population. The area is amongst the most deprived in the country as defined by Public Health England.

The practice is in a health centre which is shared with another GP practice. The facilities provided include 3 consulting rooms, 1 treatment rooms, a phlebotomy room (for carrying out blood tests) and access to a shared health education room. There is level access into the practice and to all patient accessible areas; toilets are accessible with facilities for patients with disabilities and a baby changing area. Parking is currently unavailable on site due to construction of the health centres new premises. Parking was available close to the practice. There are a range of administrative and staff areas including meeting rooms within the practice, some of which are on the first floor.

There are three partners in the practice which included the practice manager. Additionally there are three salaried GPs working in the practice. All GP’s are female and all work part-time. In addition there is a senior nurse, two practice nurses, a phlebotomist (staff who carry out blood tests) and a health care assistant. The practice also employs a small team of reception and administrative staff including a medical secretary. These teams are supported by a practice manager and an assistant practice manager/medical secretary.

The practice has a Primary Medical Services (PMS) contract to deliver health care services; the contract includes enhanced services such as extended opening hours. This contract acts as the basis for arrangements between the NHS Commissioning Board and providers of general medical services in England.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. This is provided by another organisation, Brisdoc, and patients are directed to this service by the practice during out of hours.

The CQC intelligence monitoring placed the practice in band six. The intelligence monitoring tool draws on existing national data sources and includes indicators covering a range of GP practice activity and patient experience including the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) and the National Patient Survey. Based on the indicators, each GP practice has been categorised into one of six priority bands, with band six representing the best performance band. This banding is not a judgement on the quality of care being given by the GP practice; this only comes after a CQC inspection has taken place.

Updated 19 February 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out our inspection on 16th December 2014. We inspected The Maytrees Practice as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.

Overall we found the practice is rated as good. We saw examples of a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led practice. Patients reported high levels of satisfaction with the practice during our inspection and this was reflected in the comment cards we also received.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients were able to access urgent appointments, these were bookable on the day and less urgent appointments could be booked in advance. There was an online booking system available to patients.
• Patients were generally able to see a named GP of their choice for the majority of appointments.
• There were systems in place which ensured patient safety and prompt referrals to other services to ensure patients health was maintained or improved.
• The practice had systems in place which ensured a hygienic environment was maintained.
• Patients were treated with dignity and respect by a staff team who understood patients’ needs. A translation service was available one day a week to help meet the needs of the local population.
• Communication within the practice and to other services outside the practice was effective.
• The leadership of the management team ensured staff were informed and supported to deliver safe and effective care to patients.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• One of the practices GPs provided primary care services to 35 patients in a local hospital which specialises in the management and treatment of patients with acute and complex mental health problems.
• The practice had access to a link worker translation service one day a week and provided additional access to this service for patients where family members were not deemed suitable to support the patient. The practice also made daily use of the telephone translation service to assist with patient communication.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice