Archived: Seaforth Village Surgery

Updated 29 October 2015

Seaforth Village Surgery is part of the corporate provider SSP Health Limited. This practice is registered with CQC to provide primary care services, which include access to GPs, family planning, ante and post natal care. The practice is situated within the Bootle ward area of the city of Liverpool. This area has higher than average deprivation scores for income, employment, healthcare and deprivation affecting children and older people.

The practice is an Alternative Provider of medical Services (APMS) with a registered list size of 1812 patients. The practice population is predominantly younger than 40 years and the area has high levels of deprivation and unemployment. The practice has a regular GP working across five days, two practice nurses, a part time practice manager and a number of administration and reception staff.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments can be booked for up to a week in advance for the doctors and a month in advance for the nursing clinics. The practice treats patients of all ages and provides a range of medical services. The practice does not deliver out-of-hours services. These are delivered by Go To Doc (GTD), a private provider of out of hour’s services commissioned by South Sefton CCG.

Updated 29 October 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an inspection at Seaforth Village Surgery in November 2014 and found breaches of regulations relating to the safe and effective delivery of patient services. The overall rating of the practice in November 2014 was inadequate and the practice was placed into special measures for six months. Following the inspection, we received an action plan which set out what actions were to be taken to achieve compliance.

We carried out a further announced comprehensive inspection at the practice on 8 September 2015. This inspection was carried out to consider whether sufficient improvements had been made and to identify if the provider was now meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. At the inspection in September 2015, we found the practice had made significant improvements and they were now meeting all of the regulations which had previously been breached. The ratings for the practice have been updated to reflect our findings.

Specifically, we found the practice had improved systems in place for providing safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive services. It was also good for providing services for all the population groups it serves.

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

• Systems were in place to ensure incidents and significant events were identified, investigated and reported. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and to report incidents. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate for their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients spoke positively about the practice and its staff. They said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available, in different languages and easy to understand for the local population.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and that there was continuity of care. Urgent appointments were available on the same day.
• 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.

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

• The practice had, as part of their contract an Enhanced Service, a target (2% of the practice population) to reduce unnecessary emergency admissions to secondary care. The provider should ensure that all personalised care plans relevant to this service are reviewed by the GP on a regular basis to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 29 October 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. Extended appointments were offered to patients on multiple disease registers. The practice undertook planned home reviews to co-inside with flu and pneumococcal immunisations for patient convenience. Smoking cessation services were pro-actively recommended to patients by working in conjunction with No Butts Stop Smoking service in Sefton. The practice had signposting services or self-referral to the Alcohol and Drug Recovery Team – Sefton Treatment and Recovery Services.

Updated 29 October 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 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. Midwife clinics were held fortnightly for our pregnant patients. The practice had an allocated room for breastfeeding available for our mums and babies. The practice nurse offers contraceptive advice, as well as sign posting and advice to other local services. Sign posting for counselling services for young people in Sefton was in place. The practice actively encourages the student population to have the recommended vaccinations: Meningococcal C vaccination and MMR. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. We saw good examples of joint working with midwives, health visitors and school nurses.

Updated 29 October 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 29 October 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 offered 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 29 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice had reported that 80% of these patients had undergone a review and 92% of the patients have had a mental health care plan agreed and reviewed with the remaining patients referred to the local mental health trust. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. It carried out advance 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. It had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency (A&E) where they may have been experiencing poor mental health. Staff had received training on how to care for people with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 29 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice maintained a list of patients who lived in vulnerable circumstance such as those with mental health problems and the elderly patients. Alerts were put on the system for these patients. The practice had a number of patients on the Learning Disability register, a home visit system has been set up to offer these patients a visit by the GP to reduce any unnecessary anxiety.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of patients in vulnerable circumstances. They had a Practice Mental Health Liaison Officer who acted as a link between primary care and mental health services. They worked together helping patients 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.