New Eltham Medical Centre

Updated 1 November 2018

New Eltham Medical Centre is in the London Borough of Greenwich, and provides a general practice service to 8617 patients from two purpose built premises.

Its main site is in New Eltham, and it also has a branch site Blackfen Medical Centre in Sidcup, Kent, which is part of the London Borough of Bexley.

Between October 2016 and March 2017, the practice became the formal ‘caretakers’ of a neighbouring practice’s patients, as the practice closed at short notice due to retirement of their lead GPs. This involved the transfer of approximately 1500 patients, who joined the practice

during this period.

The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a partnership to provide the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder or injury; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning; and maternity and midwifery services.

The practice has a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract and provides a full range of essential, additional and enhanced services including maternity services, child and adult immunisations, family planning, sexual health services and minor surgery.

The practice has three GP partners, two salaried GPs and two sessional GPs. There is a good mix of female and male staff. The practice has one full time practice manager, a deputy practice manager and the rest of the practice team consists of one full time practice nurse, one-part time sessional practice nurse and ten administrative staff consisting of medical secretaries, reception staff, clerks and typist.

New Eltham Medical Practice is open Mondays to Fridays from 8am to 6.30pm; except for Thursdays when they are open 8am to 1.30pm. The branch surgery, Blackfen Medical Centre, is open Mondays to Fridays from 8.30am to 6.30pm. At New Eltham Medical Practice, consultation

times are from 8.30am to 11.30am Mondays to Fridays, and from 3pm to 6pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, 3.30pm to 6pm on Wednesdays, and from 4pm to 6pm on Fridays.

New Eltham Medical Practice is open on Saturday mornings from 8.30am to 12noon.

At the branch surgery, Blackfen Medical Centre, morning consultation times are from 8.30am to 11.30am Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, from 9am to 12noon on Wednesday and from 8.30am to 11am on Thursdays. Afternoon consultation times are from 4pm to 6pm on Mondays to

Fridays, except for Thursdays when they are from 3.30pm to 6pm.

When the practice sites are closed, the telephone answering service directs patients to contact the out of hours provider.

Updated 1 November 2018

Following this focused inspection, we found the provider had implemented sufficient improvements.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had implemented an annual programme for the completion of staff appraisals, staggered at three monthly intervals for different groups of staff.
• The practice performance for child immunisation had improved, and now met target in all areas measured.

We found the areas we had identified at our last inspection that the provider should make improvements had been mostly addressed:

• The practice recruitment policy had been updated and it now included a clear rationale for DBS checking. The practice also has a DBS checks protocol in place which set out the type of checks to be carried out for clinical and non-clinical staff, and the frequency of these checks.
• Since our last inspection, the practice has reviewed its procedures for identifying patients with caring responsibilities. At this inspection, we found they had identified a greater proportion of patients with caring responsibilities; which had increased from 32 patients to 78 patients. They achieved this by raising awareness among patients through a poster in their reception area, actively using information received such as from hospital letters, and asking patients about caring responsibilities during their appointments. The practice provided and signposted patients with caring responsibilities to appropriate support. However, the proportion of patients with caring responsibilities was still relatively low and below 1%.
• The results from the latest national GP patient survey showed patients responses to questions about timeliness of access to the service was comparable with other local practices and national averages. The practice had also met with their current phone system company on 3rd October 2018 to look at ways of upgrading the phone system. However, they are unable to make changes to their contract until October 2019, when they plan to upgrade the telephone system. In the meantime, they told us the phone company is considering providing with a temporary solution and ways to reduce the waiting time for patients.

The area where the provider should make improvements is:

• Continue to review their arrangements for the identification of patients with caring responsibilities so they can provide and signpost them to appropriate support.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 1 November 2018

Updated 1 November 2018

Updated 1 November 2018

Updated 1 November 2018

Updated 1 November 2018

Updated 1 November 2018