Archived: Robson Street Practice

Updated 10 December 2015

Robson Street Practice is a family surgery situated in a deprived area of Merseyside. There were 1986 patients on the practice list at the time of our inspection and the majority of patients were of white British background.

The practice has a lead GP and also uses two regular locum GPs. There is one practice nurse. 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 111 service for GP out of hours services.

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

Updated 10 December 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Robson Street Practice on 19 October 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, low level reception desks for wheelchair users, hearing loop and translation services.

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

• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

There was an area of outstanding practice,

• The practice manager had designed a congratulations letter for all new born children (pink for girls, blue for boys) that gave details of all baby immunisations and service available. This had been used by Public Health England’s local immunisation co-ordinator and disseminated to other practices in the area as an example of good practice. In addition, the Chief Operating for SSP Health Limited had designed an early years fact sheet about immunisations which was also sent out.

However the provider should consider improving the service by:-

• Making patients aware of the names of GPs available each day by displaying notices in the waiting room/reception area and have information available on the website.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for people with long term conditions. 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.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated 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. 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 10 December 2015

The practice is rated 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 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 years. The practice offered several services to this population group such as telecare systems for personal alarms, telehealth services to monitor a variety of conditions and medication reviews with a pharmacist and consultant geriatrician.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is 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. For example, the practice offered online appointment bookings. The practice also offered telephone consultations to reduce time off work.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated good for providing services for patients experiencing poor mental health. 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.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated 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 were available for people with a learning disability. Staff had received safeguarding training.