Archived: 80 Tettenhall Road Surgery

Updated 25 June 2015

The 80 Tettenhall Road Surgery provides primary medical services for patients living within their practice boundary in Wolverhampton and the surrounding areas. The practice has a contract to provide General Medical Services for patients. This is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the commonest form of GP contract.

The practice provides a number of specialist clinics and services. For example long term condition management including asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure. It also offers a phlebotomy service (the taking of blood from a vein for investigations) and childhood and travel vaccinations.

A team of two GPs; a GP registrar (GP registrars are qualified doctors who undertake additional training to gain experience and higher qualifications in general practice and family medicine); a practice nurse; a health care assistant; a practice manager and six administrative staff provide care and treatment for approximately 3400 patients. There is one female and one male GP.

The practice has been a training practice for GP registrars to gain experience and higher qualifications in general practice and family medicine since 2009.

The practice is open between 8.30am and 6.30pm Monday to Wednesday. It is open between 8.30am and 1pm on Thursdays and 8.30am and 6pm on Fridays.

GP appointments are available between 8.30am to 11.20am each morning. However, on Thursday mornings GP appointments are available until 12pm and appointments start from 8am on Friday mornings. GP appointments are also available between 3pm and 5pm Monday to Friday with the exception of Thursday afternoons when it is closed. Extended hours surgeries are offered on Monday evenings between 6.30pm to 7.30pm. The practice does not routinely provide an out-of-hours service to its own patients but they have alternative arrangements for patients to be seen by Prime Care out of hours service when the practice is closed.

Updated 25 June 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at 80 Tettenhall Road Surgery on 18 May 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to require improvement for providing safe services. We found the practice to be good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was found to be good for providing services for older people; people with long-term conditions; families, children and young people; working age people; people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of those relating to recruitment checks.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Most patients said they found it easy to make an appointment. Urgent appointments were available within 48 hours. On the day appointments were available for children and vulnerable adults.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

• There was a system in place to ensure that vulnerable adults received appropriate care and treatment. The practice maintained a list of 11 vulnerable adults and reception staff actively recorded when they were seen. Reception staff telephoned these patients each month if they had not visited the practice, to enquire about their health and wellbeing. Where appropriate, appointments were made for these patients to be seen by the GP.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider must:

• Ensure that appropriate staff have been subject to, or been risk assessed for the need to have a Disclosure and Barring Service check carried out. They should also put in place a system to monitor that the practice nurse’s professional registration is in date to ensure they are fit to carry out their role.

In addition the provider should:

• Put measures in place, such as installing a switchless socket or clearly labelling the vaccine fridge plug with a cautionary notice, to prevent the accidental interruption of the electricity supply to the vaccine fridge.
• Ensure fire drills are carried out regularly to ensure that staff are aware of how to safely evacuate patients in the event of a fire. An oxygen warning sign should be fitted to the door of the room where the oxygen cylinder is stored to alert the fire service to its presence in the event of a fire.
• Ensure there is a system in place to review and update policies and procedures in a timely manner.
• Ensure that risk assessments are completed and an action plan put in place to manage all identified risks.
• Ensure that the facilities in place to support patients with mobility disabilities are fit for purpose and meet their needs.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 25 June 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and most patients had an annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 25 June 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations. Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals, and we saw evidence to confirm this. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

Updated 25 June 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 25 June 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and promoted continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group.

Updated 25 June 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). Eighty-five per cent of people with a diagnosis of dementia had a care plan in place. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia.

The practice provided a shared care service for patients with substance misuse problems. Shared care is a partnership between the GP and a worker from a substance misuse agency. The GP provided a substitute prescription for the patient and the worker provided support for the patients’ social and emotional needs.

Updated 25 June 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice maintained a list of 11 vulnerable adults and reception staff actively recorded when they were seen. Reception staff telephoned these patients each month if they had not visited the practice, to enquire about their health and wellbeing. Where appropriate, appointments were made for these patients to be seen by the GP. It had carried out annual health checks for people with a learning disability and six out of 13 of these patients had received a follow-up. The practice offered longer appointments for people with a learning disability.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. It had told vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. However, not all staff had received training in safeguarding vulnerable adults. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.