Archived: Netherley Medical Centre

Updated 22 October 2015

Netherley Medical Centre is situated in a deprived area of Merseyside. There were 4130 patients on the practice list at the time of our inspection and the majority of patients were of white British background.

The practice has two permanent GPs and also uses locum GPs. There is one practice nurse and a nurse practitioner. Members of clinical staff are supported by the practice manager, reception and administration staff.

The practice is open 8am to 6.30pm every weekday. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the GP out of hours service provided by Urgent Care 24.

The practice has an alternative provider of medical services contract (APMS) contract and had enhanced services contracts for example, childhood vaccinations.

Updated 22 October 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Netherley Medical Centre on 16 September 2015.

Overall the practice is rated good.

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

• The practice was clean and had good facilities including disabled access and facilities including a low level reception desk.

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding. The practice was clean and tidy. The practice used a pharmacy advisor to ensure the practice was prescribing in line with current guidelines and a pharmacy was situated in the same building.

• 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 on feedback.

• A Local Medical Director had been recently appointed to oversee the clinical governance of the practice and was proactively encouraging the use of clinical audits to ensure patients received treatment in line with best practice standards.
• Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

However there were improvements the provider should consider:-

• Have notices displayed to patients in the reception area and website to advise them which doctors were available on different days.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 22 October 2015

These patients had a six monthly or annual review with either the GP and/or the nurse to check their health and medication. The practice had registers in place for several long term conditions including diabetes and asthma. The practice had adopted a holistic approach to patient care rather than making separate appointments for each medical condition. The practice offered appointments with the practice nurse for up to 45 minutes to ensure patients with multiple needs were seen. The practice had recently taken part in a scheme called Tele-health which assisted patients with long term conditions such as diabetes to monitor and manage their own conditions.

Updated 22 October 2015

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. The practice regularly liaised with health visitors. Immunisation rates were high for all standard childhood immunisations. The practice had developed an ‘Access for Children’ policy to ensure that all children under five could be seen on the same day if required.

Updated 22 October 2015

The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and offered home visits and nursing home visits. The practice participated in meetings with other healthcare professionals to discuss any concerns. There was a named GP for patients over the age of 75 and these patients were sent a ‘birthday card’ which contained a questionnaire to give them an opportunity to highlight any concerns they had both physically or socially so they could be signposted to the relevant service.

Updated 22 October 2015

The needs of this population group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible. For example, the practice offered online appointment bookings and were in the process of installing an electronic prescribing service. The practice also offered telephone consultations to reduce time off work.

Updated 22 October 2015

Patients experiencing poor mental health received an invitation for an annual physical health check. Those few that did not attend had alerts placed on their records so they could be reviewed opportunistically. Mental Capacity Act training was available to all staff and SSP Health Ltd had also disseminated information regarding Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards to all its practices. The practice liaised with a community mental health officer who attended the practice once a week and had scheduled additional training about mental health awareness for the staff.

Updated 22 October 2015

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 were available for people with a learning disability. Staff had received safeguarding training. The practice took part in a scheme to offer food vouchers for homeless and other vulnerable patients in the area.