Archived: Tilehurst Surgery Partnership

Updated 9 April 2018

Tilehurst Surgery Partnership is located in an urban area of Berkshire. It holds a primary medical services (PMS) contract to provide primary medical services to approximately 14,580 registered patients.

The practice serves a population which has a similar age profile to the local clinical commissioning group average and is slightly more affluent than the national average.

Care and treatment is delivered by six GP partners and three salaried GPs: seven female and two male. The practice is a training practice, and a Registrar is in post. The practice employs a team of four Nurses, four health care assistants and a clinical pharmacist. GPs and nurses are supported by the Partnership (Practice) Manager and Deputy Practice Manager and a team of reception and administration staff; a total 44 staff. Cover for holidays and other periods of absence is provided by regular locum GPs.

The practice is open between 8.00am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Pre-booked appointments are available from 8.30am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday and patients with an urgent need to see a GP can be seen up until 6.30pm. Extended surgery hours, staffed by GPs and nurses are offered between 7.30am to 8.00am two to four mornings per week, between 6.30pm and 8.00pm one evening per week and on Saturday mornings twice a month.

The main entrance to the practice, whilst being physically accessible to patients with a disability or those with prams and pushchairs, did not have automated access. However, we saw plans to install automatic doors as part of a new building scheme to significantly increase the capacity of the surgery premises. All consulting and treatment rooms are located on the ground floor.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to its own patients. There are arrangements for patients to access care from an out-of-hours provider, via NHS 111.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Tilehurst Surgery on 7 March 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

All services are provided from: Tilehurst Surgery, Tyler Place, Tilehurst, Reading, Berkshire, RG30 6BW. Information about the practice can be found on their website at www.tilehurstsurgery.co.uk

The practice has been inspected before in November 2014 when it was found to be good for the delivery of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services, giving rise to an overall rating of good.

Updated 9 April 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall.

At our previous inspection in November 2014 the practice had an overall rating as good.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

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 were 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 Tilehurst Surgery in Reading, Berkshire on 7th March 2018. We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether Tilehurst Surgery was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

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 fully engaged with programmes developed in the local area to support patients' health and wellbeing in a number of different ways.
• 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. The practice was above average for its satisfaction scores on consultations with GPs and nurses in a number of areas.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access urgent care when they needed it.
• Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual people and delivered in a way that ensured flexibility and choice. For example, the practice worked collaboratively with other external organisations and charities.
• There was a strong focus on mentoring, continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• We received positive feedback from external stakeholders and patients who access GP services from the practice.
• Succession planning within the practice for forthcoming retirements was well structured and co-ordinated.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

Safeguarding adults and children: the practice had developed a focused and streamlined system, with a dedicated administrator, to process all child protection (and domestic violence and vulnerable adult) reports in a timely and consistent way. This was demonstrated by an audit carried out by the West Berkshire Child Safeguarding Lead which showed the practice’s report response rate was 93% compared with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) average of 45%.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 9 April 2018

Updated 9 April 2018

Updated 9 April 2018

Updated 9 April 2018

Updated 9 April 2018

Updated 9 April 2018