Archived: Concept House Surgery

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is a partnership of two GPs. There is also one salaried GP. Two doctors are female and one is male. There is also one nurse clinician, one practice nurse and one healthcare assistant.

The surgery is located on a main road with a local bus service. Car parking is available on site. The ground floor facilities are accessible by a ramp. Patients are seen in rooms on the ground floor.

This is a training practice and usually has a fully qualified 'trainee' GP attached to the practice, as well as a regular secondment of third and fourth year medical students from Liverpool University School of Medicine.

Medical services are provided under the provisions of a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract. Minor surgical procedures are carried out.

Concept House Surgery has been operating a branch surgery at Sefton Road Surgery since April 2014. For patients this means that as a patient of either practice, they are able to use both surgeries. The doctors, clinical and administrative staff share their time across the two practices, so this ‘joining’ of the practices extended patient choice. The practice has a total patient list size of 4,881 patients and the list size continues to increase. Concept Road Surgery serves a broad community of adults and children in a socially deprived part of the City.

Out of hours care is provided by the Urgent Care 24.

Updated 23 April 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report of findings from our inspection of Concept House Surgery. Our comprehensive inspection was an announced inspection, which took place on 13 November 2014.

Concept House Surgery is situated in Bootle and has operated Sefton Road Surgery, situated in Litherland, as a branch surgery since April 2014. Because of the way in which each surgery has been registered with the Care Quality Commission, Concept House Surgery and Sefton Road Surgery have been inspected separately and individual reports are available for both practices.

We rated the practice overall as good because the practice had made provision to ensure care for people was safe, caring, responsive, effective and well lead.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice was safe and well led. The practice had combined two surgeries which were formally single handed GP services and had brought together telephone and other new systems to enable patients to be seen by clinicians at either of the two practices.

• The practice was responsive. The practice had developed over the last year an audited system of flexible and bookable appointment times across the two surgeries.
• The practice was effective. The practice had introduced a clear vision and had combined staff to form a new team to deliver high quality care and promote good outcomes for patients using either surgery.
• The practice was caring. Patients were satisfied with the individual approaches adopted by staff and said they were respectful and polite. We received a number of comments from patients who told us that the clinicians took time to listen to them.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. Appropriate and supportive processes were in place. Suitable and timely referrals were made for patients in this group. When needed, longer appointments and home visits were available. Patients had structured annual reviews to check their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs clinicians worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. It provided flexibility to parents in accessing children’s immunisations by use of the appointment system rather than having a dedicated baby clinic. This helped families make good use of immunisation services and immunisation rates were high for all standard childhood immunisations.

Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

All of the staff were very responsive to parents’ concerns and ensured parents could have same day appointments for children who were unwell.

Staff were knowledgeable about child protection and a GP took the lead within the practice to liaise with the Local Authority and other professionals to safeguard children and families.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. The practice served a community across all population groups. The practice was very committed to looking after people in their own community. The practice offered a named GP for those patients who were 75 years and older in line with the new GP contracting arrangement. The practice also had a system for ensuring elderly patients requiring urgent care were seen on the same day.

Home visits were made when necessary and home bound patients were supported by the practice.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working age people (including those recently retired and students). A bookable appointment system had been introduced and had been embedded into the services offered. The system had been audited after introduction and adjusted to ensure appointments were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. For example, the practice provided a late night surgery one evening per week. The practice also offered telephone clinics as well as a range of health promotion and screening which reflected the needs of this age group.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). Clinicians were mindful of the differing needs of patients and the different and diverse mental health issues faced in this community, including younger people with poor mental health. The practice worked in close co-operation with other services to review and share care with specialist teams. The practice maintained a register of patients who experienced poor mental health. The register supported clinical staff to offer patients an annual appointment for a health check and a medication review.

Referral to support groups and other useful services were made available.

Updated 23 April 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. It had experience in supporting patients living in a variety of vulnerable circumstances including some who were homeless and some using a local hostel for homeless people. Clinicians sought to provide appropriate and timely access to health care to meet their needs.

Suitable registers were maintained in order to support all staff assisting vulnerable people including patients with drug and alcohol problems. Extended appointment times were offered to patients as needed. For example patients with a learning disability.

Staff were knowledgeable about safeguarding vulnerable adults generally. Staff were also knowledgeable about safeguarding within this community which provided particular social challenges for patients in vulnerable circumstances. They had access to the practice’s policy and procedures and had received training suitable to their role.