• Doctor
  • GP practice

Thornley Street Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

40 Thornley Street, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV1 1JP (01902) 688500

Provided and run by:
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

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Background to this inspection

Updated 19 December 2018

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) has been the registered provider for Thornley Street Medical Centre since 21 September 2017. The practice became part of RWT through a model of care called vertical integration. The model of care allows the practice to formally pool its resources and become a single organisation with RWT. For example, all staff were transferred to RWT and are salaried employees of the Trust. Vertical integration aims to improve care co-ordination between primary and secondary care.

Thornley Street Medical Centre is a well-established GP practice situated in Wolverhampton city centre and near to Wolverhampton University’s city campus. The practice is made up of six adapted terrace houses and provides services for patients over two floors. There is access for patients who use wheelchairs. There is also a lift for ease of access to the consulting rooms on the first floor if required. At the time of our inspection, the practice had 10,500 registered patients. The ethnicity of patients registered at the practice are approximately 50% white and 25% of Asian origin. The remaining 25% are identified as mixed race, black and other race. The practice has a high percentage of patients from the Eastern European communities. The practice is in the most deprived decile in the city. This may mean that there is an increased demand on the services provided.

The practice does not provide an out-of-hours service to its own patients but patients are directed to the out of hours service, Vocare via the NHS 111 service. The practice provides services to patients of all ages based on a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England for delivering primary care services to their local community. Services provided at the practice include the following clinics; minor surgery, diabetic, hypertension (high blood pressure) and immunisation. The practice has a higher proportion of male and female patients aged 15 to 64 years (53.6%) compared to the CCG average of 32.4% and National average of 34.6%. The level of income deprivation affecting children is 37%, which is higher than the National average of 20%. The level of income deprivation affecting older people is higher, 39% than the National average of 20%.

The team of clinical staff at Thornley Street Medical Centre is made up of four GPs (two female, two male) plus locums as required. The GPs work a total of 42 sessions between them. Other clinical staff includes two practice nurses, one working full time and the other part time. The clinical staff are supported by a practice manager, deputy practice manager, administration and reception staff. The practice is a teaching practice for medical students and GP registrars. The practice also offers placements to student nurses and administration staff apprentices. At the time of the inspection the practice had a GP registrar working eight sessions a week at the time of the inspection. A GP Registrar or GP trainee is a qualified doctor who is training to become a GP through a period of working and training in a practice. There is a total of 22 staff working at the practice either full or part time hours.

Additional information about the practice is available on their website: http://www.thornleystreetsurgery.nhs.uk

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 19 December 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced inspection at Thornley Street Medical Centre on 24 October 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
  • The practice had systems to keep patients safe and safeguarded from the risk of abuse.
  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
  • The practice had a structured approach for monitoring patients with long term conditions which ensured patients were offered a review of their care and treatment.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use, however they expressed concerns about the time it took to get through to the practice and the waiting time beyond their appointment to be seen at the practice.
  • There was evidence of the systems and processes in place for continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
  • Changes were made in the management structure both locally and at a wider organisation level. These changes had impacted on the recent transition of the practice to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Governance arrangements were not fully embedded and the support of staff was not fully established.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Ensure that reception staff are aware of how to prioritise patients that may present with severe infection or sepsis.
  • Improve the uptake of cervical screening.
  • Continue to identify carers and establish what support they need.
  • Carry out a risk assessment to assess whether the practice needed to keep in stock a medicine to treat croup in children.
  • Collect information in relation to the Accessible Information Standard (a requirement to make sure that patients and their carers can access and understand the information that they are given) at the point of registration and improve staff awareness of this standard.
  • Improve communication and information sharing with all staff.
  • Ensure staff files include details of staff vaccination and immunisation history.
  • Consider developing a documented business plan to support the vision and strategy and achieve objectives.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.