Archived: St Mary's Road Surgery

Updated 20 August 2015

The St Mary’s Road surgery provides general medical services to approximately 11,800 registered patients. The St Mary’s Road Surgery has a high number of patients registered who are over the age of 65 years old, with low deprivation scores.

Care and treatment is delivered by two male GPs and three female GPs practice nurses, health care assistants and phlebotomists. The practice also works closely with midwives, district nurses and health visitors. All consulting and treatment rooms are located on the ground floor.

St Mary’s Road Surgery is open between 8am and 6.30pm on Monday to Friday and offers extended hours on alternate Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 7am to 8am and 6.30pm to 8pm.

The practice is registered to provide the following regulated activities; family planning, diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. GMS contracts are subject to direct national negotiations between the Department of Health and the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association.

There were no previous performance issues or concerns about this practice prior to our inspection. This was a comprehensive inspection.

The practice is a GP training practice.

The practice provides services from the following site:

St Mary’s Road Surgery

St Mary’s Road

Berkshire

Newbury

RG14 1EQ

Updated 20 August 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We undertook a comprehensive inspection of the St Mary’s Road Surgery on 13 June 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

We found the practice to be good for providing effective, caring, well-led and responsive services. It required improvement for providing safe services. It was good at providing services for all the population groups including older people; people with long term conditions; mothers, babies, children and young people; the working age populations and those recently retired; people in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• The practice offered in house ultrasound service to patients. Two GPs were trained to offer this service and were able to carry out scans for pregnant women in early pregnancy and identify any problems quickly and efficiently. This also meant patients did not have to be referred to local hospital to access this service.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider must:

• Ensure all staff identified as requiring a criminal records check through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) have one undertaken as soon as possible.
• Ensure all recruitment and employment information required by the regulations are documented in all staff members’ personnel files.
• Ensure all relevant risk assessments are completed. This includes risk assessments in areas such as, fire, legionella and infection control.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 20 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of patients with long-term conditions. Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care. The practice held regular clinics for long terms conditions such as asthma, diabetes and blood pressure and coronary heart disease. 

Updated 20 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young patients. The practice offered in house ultrasound service to patients. Two GPs were trained to offer this service and were able to carry out scans for pregnant women in early pregnancy and identify any problems quickly and efficiently. The practice ran regular clinics to support this population group, which included contraceptive, sexual health and child immunisations clinics. The practice had achieved the national average for childhood immunisations. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. We saw good examples of joint working with midwives, health visitors and school nurses. Staff knew their patient population very well and the practice had systems in place to identify children or parents at risk. The practice held regular safeguarding meetings, where child protection issues were discussed and learning was shared. Children and young patients were treated in an age appropriate way and their consent to treatment using appropriate methods was requested. 

Updated 20 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older patients. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older patients. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 20 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age patients (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group. 

Updated 20 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of patients experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia.

The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Leaflets about local support groups were available and referrals to the memory clinic for patients with dementia were made. The practice also referred these patients to local charitable organisations, who offered patients with mental health support and advice.

Updated 20 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of patients whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks for people with a learning disability and 95% of these patients had received a follow-up. It offered longer appointments for people with a learning disability. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable patients. The practice held regular palliative care and safeguarding meetings, where vulnerable patients were discussed. It had told vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.