St Lawrence Surgery

Updated 22 December 2022

St Lawrence Surgery is located in Worthing, West Sussex at:

79 St Lawrence Avenue

Worthing,

West Sussex

BN14 7JL

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Sussex Health and Care Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 16,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, made up of 3 local practices within the central Worthing locality.

Information published by the UK Health and Security Agency shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third highest decile (8 of 10). The higher the decile, the less deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 95% White, 3% Asian, and 2% Mixed.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are slightly more female patients registered at the practice compared to males.

There is a team of 11 GPs, 6 GP partners and 5 salaried GPs. The practice has 2 nurse practitioners, a nurse prescriber and 5 practice nurses. They have 4 healthcare assistants, a nursing associate, a nursing associate student and 2 phlebotomists. There are 3 paramedic practitioners, 3 pharmacists and 2 pharmacy technicians. The practice is supported by a team of reception/administration staff. The practice is managed by a practice business manager with support from finance, administrative and patient services managers.

The practice is open between 7.30 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday and 9 am to 12pm Saturday. The practice offers a range of appointment types, including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by Innovations in Primary Care, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 22 December 2022

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St Lawrence Surgery on 23 September 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as outstanding.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive – outstanding

Well-led - outstanding

Following our previous inspection on 2 August 2016 the practice was rated outstanding overall and for providing responsive and well-led services. They were rated good for providing safe, effective and caring services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Lawrence Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach. The inspection was a comprehensive inspection to look at all key questions.

How we carried out the inspection/review

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.

Our findings

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 found that:

• The practice was engaged with other local services and were active in working collaboratively to develop services that met the needs of the local population. Examples included the development of LGBTQ+, veteran, safeguarding and mental health services.
• They continued to provide high quality care and treatment and inspired staff to use innovative ways to improve services for patients.
• They routinely carried out a number of quality improvement projects to meet the changing needs of the local population.
• They shared improvement initiatives with other practices to develop services locally and nationally.
• 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.

We found the following outstanding practice:

• The practice had implemented a patient signposting service and developed the multidisciplinary team in a way that improved access to general practice appointments for patients. There was a demonstrable improvement in GP patient survey results.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Implement a system of checks to ensure that patients referred for a two week wait referral have attended their appointment.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services