Background to this inspection
Updated
13 March 2019
Long Stratton Medical Partnership is situated within the NHS South Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 11,128 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The provider operates from their main location at Swan Lane Surgery, Long Stratton, Norfolk and their branch practice at Newton Flotman Surgery, Newton Flotman, Norfolk. The provider is able to offer dispensing services from both sites to those patients on the practice list who live more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy. We visited both sites including the dispensaries as part of this inspection.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. These are delivered from both sites.
The provider is a partnership first registered with the CQC in April 2013. The practice clinical team consists of three female and two male GP partners, one male and two female salaried GPs, three female and two male nurses and two female healthcare assistants. The dispensary manager, senior dispenser, five dispensers and one apprentice dispenser operate the dispensaries. The practice manager leads a team of 19 administrative, reception and secretarial staff.
The practice population has average numbers of patients under the age of 18 and over the age of 65 compared with the local and national average. Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as nine, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 82 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 83 years, in line with the national average of 83 years.
Updated
13 March 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Long Stratton Medical Partnership on 7 February 2019 as part of our inspection programme. The practice was previously inspected in November 2014 and rated as good overall.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service 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.
We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
We found one area of outstanding practice:
- The practice had introduced a wide range of innovative IT solutions developed and implemented within the practice before working with the computer system developer to make the protocol available to all users, with approximately 400 GP Practices using the protocols across England. For example, following an incident whereby a clinician forgot to send a message to the secretary to send a two-week wait suspected cancer referral, the practice implemented a protocol to alert the clinician to provide a verbal safety net to the patient (asking the patient to contact the practice if they hadn’t received a referral) and to provide an automatic message to the secretary to send the referral. Since the protocol was introduced in May 2018, the protocol was used in each of the 1,068 two week wait referrals and the practice had not recorded any delays or incidents.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Review the processes for authorising Patient Group Directions and managing stocks of controlled drugs.
- Continue to monitor, review and improve the quality of care provided to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice