Archived: Bowery Medical Centre Also known as SSP Health Ltd

Updated 22 October 2015

Bowery Medical Centre is a family surgery situated in a deprived area of Merseyside. The practice had been established since 1903. One of the partners at the practice had set up SSP Health Ltd who now managed the service. There were 3821 patients on the practice list at the time of our inspection and the majority of patients were of white British background.

The practice has two permanent GPs and also uses locum GPs. There is one practice nurse and an assistant practitioner. Members of clinical staff are supported by the practice manager, reception and administration staff.

The practice is open 8am to 6.30pm daily. There is protected practice learning time every Thursday when the staff are able to focus on practice issues and the doctor is available for advice and emergencies. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the GP out of hours service provided by St Helen’s Rota.

The practice has a personal medical services contract (PMS) contract and had enhanced services contracts for example, childhood vaccinations.

Updated 22 October 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bowery Medical Centre on 22 September 2015.

Overall the practice is rated good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• The practice was clean and had good facilities including disabled access and facilities.

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding. The practice was clean and tidy. The practice used a pharmacy advisor to ensure the practice was prescribing in line with current guidelines.

• Information about services and how to complain was available. The practice sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service, including having a patient participation group (PPG) and acted on feedback.

• Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

There were areas of outstanding practice including:

• There was a named member of staff who was the Cancer Care Champion who telephoned all newly diagnosed cancer patients to ensure they were receiving the support required.

• The practice provided a self- funded monitoring system for patients with heart problems which had reduced referrals to other services.

• The practice had initiated an acute visiting service system that was subsequently adopted by the CCG.

However the provider should consider improving the service by:-

• Making patients aware of the names of GPs available each day by displaying notices in the waiting room/reception area and have information available on the website.

• Ensuring that patients can hear which rooms they are being called to and also signpost the rooms to avoid patient confusion.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for people with long term conditions. These patients had a six monthly or annual review with either the GP and/or the nurse to check their health and medication. The practice had registers in place for several long term conditions including diabetes and asthma. The practice had adopted a holistic approach to patient care rather than making separate appointments for each medical condition. The practice offered appointments with the practice nurse for up to an hour to ensure patients with multiple needs were seen. The practice also took part in a tele- medicine system which assisted the practice to monitor heart problems.

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for families, children and young people. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. The practice regularly liaised with health visitors. Immunisation rates were high for all standard childhood immunisations. The practice had developed an ‘Access for Children’ policy to ensure that all children under five could be seen on the same day if required.

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and offered home visits and nursing home visits. The practice participated in meetings with other healthcare professionals to discuss any concerns. There was a named GP for patients over the age of 75 years and the practice worked with the local falls team for the frail.

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for working age people. The needs of this population group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible. For example, the practice offered online appointment bookings. The practice also offered telephone consultations to reduce time off work.

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for patients experiencing poor mental health. Patients experiencing poor mental health received an invitation for an annual physical health check. Those few that did not attend had alerts placed on their records so they could be reviewed opportunistically. Mental Capacity Act training was available to all staff and SSP Health Ltd had also disseminated information regarding Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards to all its practices. The practice staff had received training around Dementia awareness.

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for people whose circumstances make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks and longer appointments were available for people with a learning disability. Staff had received safeguarding training.