Background to this inspection
Updated
7 January 2020
Loughton Health Centre provides GP services to patients living in Loughton and surrounding areas. Further information about the practice boundary can be obtained from the practice website www.loughtonhealthcentre.co.uk. The practice is commissioned by the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group.
There are approximately 11300 patients currently registered with the practice, which is located in an area which is not considered to be deprived, being on the third less deprived scale. 45% of patients have a long-standing health condition, compared with the CCG average of 51% and England average of 54%. Unemployment rates are 0.6%, which is considerably less than the CCG average of 2.9% and England average of 5%.
The practice is governed by a partnership which consists of one female and three male GPs. They are supported by a salaried GP, full-time practice manager, business manager, administration manager and reception manager. There three nurses, two healthcare assistants, a prescription clerk and a number of reception, administration and secretarial staff working various hours.
Updated
7 January 2020
We previously inspected Loughton Health Centre on 27 March 2018 when they were rated as inadequate overall and placed in special measures for a period of six months.
We served warning notices in respect of the governance and safety at the practice. At a focused inspection of 21 August 2018, we found that the practice had met the requirements of these warning notices.
We then carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Loughton Health Centre on 4 December 2018 to check that improvements had been made and to rerate the practice. At this inspection, we found that the practice had taken positive steps to respond to risk and implemented sustained improvements. They were working closely with stakeholders and action plans were being systematically reviewed. We rated them as requires improvement overall and they were taken out of special measures.
We then carried out a comprehensive inspection on 9 December 2019 to check that improvements had been made and sustained and to provide new ratings.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service is on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
The reports of all inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Loughton Health Centre on our website at .
We have rated this practice as good overall and requires improvement for all population groups.
We have rated the population group families, children and young people as requires improvement for effective because child immunisation data was below national targets and had not improved sufficiently since we last inspected.
We have rated the practice requires improvement for responsive as whilst positive action was being taken to improve, this was yet to be reflected in GP patient survey data. This affected all population groups, so they are also rated as requires improvement for responsive.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Continue to monitor and improve patient feedback in relation to accessing the practice by phone and the appointment system.
- Implement and review actions to improve the uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical screening. Continue to improve the monitoring and review of patients with long-term conditions and exception reporting in relation to the percentage of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses whose alcohol consumption had been recorded in the preceding 12 months.
- Continue to increase the number of carers identified.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care