Park House Medical Centre

Updated 10 November 2016

Park House Medical Centre is based in Prescot near a retail park. There were 7,543 patients on the practice register at the time of our inspection.

The practice is managed by three GP partners (two male, one female), two salaried GPs and one long term locum GP. There is one nurse practitioner, one practice nurse and one healthcare assistant. Members of clinical staff are supported by a business manager, an office manager, data manager, and computer manager and reception and administration staff.

The practice is open 8am to 6pm every weekday with the exception of Wednesdays when the practice phone lines closes at midday and the practice closes at 1pm. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the practice were their call is diverted to the out of hours provider, St Helens Rota. When the practice was closed on a Wednesday afternoon, any clinical queries were passed from the out of hours service to one of the GP partners on call.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract and has enhanced services contracts which include childhood vaccinations. 

Updated 10 November 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Park House Medical Centre on 5 October 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• The practice is situated in a purpose built health centre which also accommodates a community clinics and another practice. The practice was clean and had good facilities including disabled access and translation services.
• The practice had some staffing issues and had recruited two new GPs six weeks before our inspection. There was a shortfall of reception and administration staff due to absence and staff felt under pressure but had coped with the workload. The practice management were aware of this and were addressing the issue.
• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding.
• The practice was aware of and had systems in place to ensure compliance with the requirements of the duty of candour. (The duty of candour is a set of specific legal requirements that providers of services must follow when things go wrong with care and treatment).
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation.
• 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. The practice sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service; including having a patient participation group (PPG) and acted, where possible, on feedback.
• Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

There were some elements of outstanding practice including:

The practice had encouraged the career progression of staff and empowered them to be part of the ongoing development of the practice. For example, the health care assistant had started at the practice originally as a receptionist and the practice had encouraged her to train for a health care qualification. The healthcare assistant had produced some work to help staff and patients that had been adopted by the practice and the CCG. For example:

• A document to simplify the instructions for staff using the computer software.
• A health check booklet for new patient checks to explain what the results of their checks meant and should be and supporting information about healthy living. This had been adopted by the CCG to be rolled out to other practices.
• A welcome pack for new patients
• Information for borderline diabetic patients
• Documents to give a clear audit trail for prescription collection.
• Information cards for GPs to give out to patients who were identified as carers.

However, there were improvements the practice should make:

• Have a notice at the reception window to direct patients to who they can contact when the practice is closed.

• Assess any risk and implement a lone working policy for GPs on call in the building when the practice is closed.

• Have a more robust system in place to monitor training for staff and ensure all staff complete mandatory training for equality and diversity, mental capacity and fire safety.

• Have a greater degree of oversight for information regarding health and safety legislation for the building.

• Ensure references are also sought for non-clinical staff and retained.

• Display appropriate safety signs for where the oxygen is stored and ensure this is marked on the map of the building at the entrance to ensure fire crews know oxygen is on the premises.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 10 November 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people with long term conditions.  The practice had registers in place for several long term conditions including diabetes and asthma. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care. 

Updated 10 November 2016

The practice is rated as 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. There were same day appointments available for children under 12 years of age. The practice offered childhood immunisations.

Updated 10 November 2016

The practice is rated as 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 care home visits. The practice participated in meetings with other healthcare professionals to discuss any concerns. There was a named GP for the over 75s and the practice tried to see these patients on the same day if possible.  

Updated 10 November 2016

The practice is as 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. There were online systems available to allow patients to make appointments. Early morning appointments were set aside for patients who worked.

Updated 10 November 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people experiencing poor mental health. Patients experiencing poor mental health received an invitation for an annual physical health check. Those that did not attend had alerts placed on their records so they could be reviewed opportunistically.  The practice worked with nurses from local mental health teams. The practice had been part of a dementia quality project to improve identification of those patients who were at risk of developing dementia.

Updated 10 November 2016

The practice is rated as 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, sometimes at the end of a clinical session were available for people with a learning disability.