Archived: Shanklin Medical Centre

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection March 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Outstanding

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Shanklin Medical Centre on Thursday 23 November 2017 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The practice worked with other agencies to support patients and protect them from neglect and abuse. Staff took steps to protect patients from abuse, neglect, harassment, discrimination and breaches of their dignity and respect.
• The practice used text messaging reminders for appointments and if they had consent from the patient, results of blood tests for example would also be sent using this method. This helped to improve treatment and supported patients’ independence.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice:

At this inspection we found that the practice had continued to be outstanding in responding to people’s needs.

The practice continued to initiate positive service improvements for its patients that were over and above its contractual obligations. It acted on suggestions for improvements and changed the way it delivered services in response to feedback from the patient participation group. For example by offering patients alternative means of accessing their GP or meeting their healthcare needs. The practice reviewed the needs of its local population and engaged with the NHS England Area Team and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to secure service improvements where these had been identified. The practice played a significant role in instigating health initiatives and worked with the CCG and other practices to secure funding for enhanced services for patients.

For example; Results from the July 2017 annual national GP patient survey showed that patients’ satisfaction with how they could access care and treatment was higher than local and national averages. The practice had scored higher than the clinical commissioning group averages in every question. This was supported by observations on the day of inspection and completed comment cards.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice