Park Green Surgery

Updated 3 March 2017

The practice of Dr S P Singh and Partners consists of two surgeries, a main surgery at Church View Health Centre, Langthwaite Road, South Kirkby, Pontefract, WF9 3AP and a branch at Southmoor Surgery, Southmoor Road, Hemsworth, Pontefract, WF9 4LU. The practice has over 9,600 patients and had added around 600 patients to their list since 2013.

The practice is a member of the NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The main surgery Church View Health Centre is located on the first floor of a large purpose designed building which it shares with another GP practice and a number of other health and care providers. The building is accessible for those with a disability and a lift is provided to assist patients to access the surgery. The surgery has on-site parking available for patients.

The branch, Southmoor Surgery is located in an older purpose built building and has recently been refurbished. The surgery is accessible for those with a disability and parking is available for patients on the site.

The practice serves a post industrial area linked predominantly to mining and the woollen mill industry and as a result the practice has a high prevalence of long term conditions with 63% of patients reporting that they had a long standing health condition compared to the CCG average of 58% and the England average of 54%. The population age profile shows that it is comparable to the CCG and England averages for those over 65 years old (18% compared to the CCG average of 17% and England average of 17%). Average life expectancy for the practice population is 76 years for males and 80 years for females (CCG average is 77 years and 81 years respectively and the England average is 79 years and 83 years respectively). The practice serves some areas of higher than average deprivation being ranked in the second most deprived decile. The practice population is predominantly White British.

The practice provides services under the terms of the Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract. In addition the practice offers a range of enhanced local services including those in relation to:

• childhood vaccination and immunisation
• Influenza and Pneumococcal immunisation
• Rotavirus and Shingles immunisation
• Dementia support
• Risk profiling and care management
• Support to reduce unplanned admissions.
• Minor surgery
• Learning disability support
• Extended hours

As well as these enhanced services the practice also offers additional services such as those supporting long term conditions management including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension and smoking cessation.

Attached to the practice or closely working with the practice is a team of community health professionals that includes health visitors, midwives, and members of the district nursing team and health trainers. The practice also hosts other services such as audiology, ultrasound and substance misuse services.

The practice has three GP partners (two male, one female) and one salaried GP (male). In addition there are two advanced nurse practitioners, one community matron, one senior practice nurse, three practice nurses and four healthcare assistants (all female). Clinical staff are supported by a practice manager, a reception manager, and an administration and reception team.

The practice has recently been accredited as a training practice and will support GP registrars for placements from February 2017.

The practice appointments include:

• Pre-bookable appointments
• On the day/urgent appointments
• Telephone consultations and a triage clinic; where patients could speak to a GP or advanced nurse practitioner to ask advice and if identified obtain an urgent appointment.

Appointments can be made in person, via telephone or online.

Opening times for the two practice surgeries differ slightly.

Church View Health Centre

Monday to Friday 8am to 6.30pm. With extended evening opening on Tuesdays 6.30pm to 9pm.

Southmoor Surgery

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8.30am to 6pm, and Wednesday 8.30am to 1pm. With extended evening opening on Wednesdays 6.30pm to 9pm.

Appointments are available:

Church View Health Centre

Monday to Friday 8.30am to 11.30am and 2.30pm to 5.30pm with an extended evening session on Tuesdays 6.30pm to 9pm.

Southmoor Surgery

Monday to Friday 8.30am to 11.30am and 2.30pm to 5.30pm with an extended evening session on Wednesdays 6.30pm to 9pm.

Out of hours care is provided by Local Care Direct and is accessed via the practice telephone number or patients can contact NHS 111.

Updated 3 March 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr S P Singh and Partners on 5 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• 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. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

The practice employed a community matron whose aim was to ensure that the needs of elderly, housebound and nursing home patients were met. The work of the matron reduced the number of the elderly and/or vulnerable patients requiring secondary or step-up care. As a result of the work of the community matron the practice had made a small but significant reduction in the demands that would have been placed on A&E and secondary care. During 2015/2016 295 housebound and nursing home patients with chronic conditions were treated and reviewed by the community matron. Of these patients 131 suffered from chronic respiratory disease and needed repeat reviews and follow up visits after discharge.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• The practice needed to ensure that all staff were up to date with respect to their immunity and vaccination status and that this was recorded.

• The practice needed to ensure that all Patient Group Directions were in date.

• The practice needed to ensure that all vaccines stored on the premises were within date and to have system in place to assure effective stock rotation.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 16 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions.

• Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management.

• The practice delivered an avoiding unplanned admissions service which provided proactive care management for patients who had complex needs and were at risk of an unplanned hospital admission. Once a patient was identified the practice carried out advanced care planning and regular patient reviews, which involved multi-disciplinary working across health and social care providers.

• Performance for diabetes related indicators was comparable to or better than the national average. For example, 93% of patients on the diabetes register had a record of a foot examination being carried out in the preceding 12 months compared to a national average of 88%.

• All patients with a long term condition were offered reviews every six to twelve months. This gave patients the opportunity to become actively involved in decisions around their own care.

• The practice had an effective recall and review process. For example, patients with comorbidities were given extended appointments and if blood tests or other tests were required these were arranged ahead of the review, so results were available to discuss during the consultation appointment.

Updated 16 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.

• The practice worked closely with health visitors who were co-located at the main Church View Surgery. 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. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations.

• All staff received regular safeguarding training to assist them to identify and action concerns related to vulnerable children and young people.

• We were told that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals.

• The practice’s uptake for the cervical screening programme was 77%, as compared to the national average of 82%. There was a policy to offer telephone reminders for patients who did not attend for their cervical screening test.

• Appointments for babies and young people were available on the same day and appointments were available outside of school hours.

• Both the main surgery and the Southmoor branch surgery were suitable for babies and children.

Updated 16 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.

• The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population.

• The practice employed a community matron who was dedicated to meeting the needs of housebound and nursing home patients. Duties included the development and review of care plans, medication reviews, family and carer liaison and integrated working with external partners including district nurses and members of the Connecting Care Wakefield Vanguard integrated care programme (this integrated care programme is aimed at ensuring that health and social care services work together so that patients needs are met in a timely and coordinated way). During 2015/2016, 295 housebound and nursing home patients with chronic conditions were reviewed and treated by the community matron, this service could reduce the need to attend secondary or step up care.

• The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered longer appointments, urgent appointments and home visits when required.

• All staff received regular safeguarding training to assist them to identify and action concerns related to vulnerable older patients.

Updated 16 June 2016

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 offered continuity of care. For example, the practice offered extended hours sessions at Church View on Tuesdays and Southmoor on Wednesdays between 6.40pm and 8.50pm. Early morning appointments were also available from 8.10am at Church View.

• The practice was proactive in offering online services and telephone consultations as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs for this age group.

• To improve communication with this population group the practice had recently developed a social media presence and used this to raise subjects such as vaccination information and upcoming health campaigns. 

Updated 16 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

• 86% of patients diagnosed with dementia had attended/received a face to face review meeting in the last 12 months, which was comparable to the national average of 84%.

• 83% of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder or other psychoses had a comprehensive agreed care plan documented in the record in the preceding 12 months compared to a national average of 88%.

• The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of patients experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia.

• The practice carried out care planning for patients with dementia.

• The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

• The practice hosted twice weekly counselling sessions with a local provider for patients with low level mental health issues.

• Staff had a good understanding of how to support patients with mental health needs and dementia. For example, around 90% of staff had received dementia awareness training and one member of the PPG was a dementia champion and offered training to practices within the local GP network. Adaptations had been made to make the practice locations more suitable for those with dementia. This included improvements to signage, fitting handrails to corridors and providing extra seating.

Updated 16 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.

• The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability, those with mental health problems, patients with dementia, carers and the frail elderly.

• The practice offered longer appointments for patients with a learning disability or an identified need.

• The practice regularly worked with other health care professionals in the case management of vulnerable patients.

• Annual health checks were offered to this population group.

• The practice had made structural changes and installed equipment to the practice locations to make them suitable for the needs of those patients with a disability, for example door frames were painted in contrasting colours to assist the visually impaired and hearing loops had been installed to assist those with a hearing impairment.

• The practice was a registered “safe place” under the Wakefield Safer Places Scheme, which offers people who are vulnerable a safe place to attend when they feel vulnerable or in need of support when away from their home environment.

• The practice informed 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. 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.

• The practice was able to provide food vouchers for patients in financial difficulties or the homeless.