Parkwood Surgery

Updated 6 July 2017

Parkwood Surgery provides a range of primary medical services, including minor surgical procedures and vasectomies from its location on Parkwood Drive, Warners End in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. The practice has two branch surgeries; Boxmoor Surgery on St John’s Road, Boxmoor and Gadebridge Surgery on Galley Hill in Gadebridge. We did not inspect the branch surgeries during our inspection.

The practice serves a predominantly White British population of approximately 17,500 patients. The age distribution is largely in line with national averages with slightly higher proportions of males and females aged 50 to 59 years. The practice is located on the commuter belt to London and national data indicates the area is one of lower than average deprivation and low unemployment in comparison to England as a whole.

The clinical team consists of three male and four female GP partners, seven female salaried GPs, a lead practice nurse, three other practice nurses and a health care assistant. The team is supported by a practice manager, an assistant practice manager, a patient services manager and a team of administrative staff. The practice is undergoing a transition to a General Medical Services (GMS) contract for providing services, which is a nationally agreed contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering general medical services to local communities. The local NHS trust provides health visiting and community nursing services to patients at this practice.

The practice is a training practice with three accredited GP trainers and one GP registrar. (A registrar is a qualified doctor training to practice as a GP). In addition the practice provides support to medical students training to be doctors and student nurses.

The practice operates from a two storey purpose built property and patient consultations and treatments take place on the ground level. There is car parking available outside the practice for staff and patients with designated disabled parking bays.

The Parkwood Surgery is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available daily from 8.30am. In addition, pre-bookable appointments are available from 7am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Extended hours appointments are also available until 8pm on Mondays and alternate Saturdays from 9am till 12pm. Both branch surgeries open from 8.30am till 12.30pm Monday to Friday.

The out of hours service is provided by Hertfordshire Urgent Care and can be accessed via the NHS 111 service. Information about this is available in the practice and on the practice website and telephone line.

Updated 6 July 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Parkwood Surgery on 22 November 2016. The overall rating for this practice was good with the practice rated as requires improvement for safe as breaches of legal requirements were found. After the comprehensive inspection, the practice wrote to us and submitted an action plan outlining the actions they would take to meet legal requirements in relation to;

• Regulation 12 Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 – safe care and treatment.

From the inspection on 22 November 2016, the practice were told they must:

• Ensure that appropriate infection control standards are maintained in all areas of the practice to reduce risks to patients and staff including infection control auditing.

In addition, the practice were told they should:

• Continue to monitor and support patients with caring responsibilities.

The full comprehensive report on the inspection carried out in November 2016 can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Parkwood Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 20 June 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulation that we identified in our previous inspection on 22 November 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had assigned infection control responsibilities to a suitably trained and competent person.
• Appropriate standards of infection control were maintained throughout the building and improvements had been made to areas previously identified as of concern.
• The practice had been proactive in seeking support and guidance on infection control requirements from appropriate professionals. They had also provided additional training to staff to ensure new protocols were understood.
• The practice had developed systems to identify and support carers within their population. The practice had identified 315 patients as carers (approximately 1.8% of the total patient list) and had been awarded the Carer’s Gold Standard Award by the Herts Valley Clinical Commissioning Group for the work they had done to support carers. We saw that the practice had successfully established a walking group for patients; including carers and their dependants.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 6 July 2017

Following our comprehensive inspection on 22 November 2016 we rated the practice as good for the population group of people with long-term conditions. We did not review any evidence during our focused inspection to alter this rating.

Updated 6 July 2017

Following our comprehensive inspection on 22 November 2016 we rated the practice as good for the population group of families, children and young people. We did not review any evidence during our focused inspection to alter this rating.

Updated 6 July 2017

Following our comprehensive inspection on 22 November 2016 we rated the practice as good for the population group of older people. We did not review any evidence during our focused inspection to alter this rating.

Updated 6 July 2017

Following our comprehensive inspection on 22 November 2016 we rated the practice as good for the population group of working age people (including those recently retired and students). We did not review any evidence during our focused inspection to alter this rating.

Updated 6 July 2017

Following our comprehensive inspection on 22 November 2016 we rated the practice as good for the population group of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). We did not review any evidence during our focused inspection to alter this rating.

Updated 6 July 2017

Following our comprehensive inspection on 22 November 2016 we rated the practice as good for the population group of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. We did not review any evidence during our focused inspection to alter this rating.