North Kensington Medical Centre

Updated 12 January 2018

North Kensington Medical Centre operates from purpose-built NHS premises at St Quintin Avenue, London W10 6NX. The practice is co-located with another GP practice. The property is owned and maintained by NHS Property Services (NHSPS). The practice has access to four consultation rooms and a nurse treatment room. All services are provided on the ground floor.

The practice provides NHS primary care services to 4,800 patients and operates under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract (GMS is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the commonest form of GP contract). The practice is part of NHS West London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The practice is registered as a partnership with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, maternity and midwifery services and surgical procedures.

The practice is a teaching practice and at the time of the inspection there was a foundation year two (FY2) trainee doctor on placement.

The practice staff comprises of one male and two female GP partners (totalling 18 sessions per week), a female FY2 doctor (4 sessions per week), a nurse practitioner (two sessions per week), a full-time practice nurse and healthcare assistant, a phlebotomist (10 hours per week), a part-time practice manager, IT support, four receptionists and a secretary. In addition, there was a full-time case manager and health and social care assistant attached to the practice as part of the locally funded My Care, My Way initiative to manage patients aged 65 and over who had been identified by the practice using the Frailty Index (method to identify and predict adverse outcomes for older patients in primary care).

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours appointments are available from 7.30am to 8am Monday to Friday and from 6.30pm to 8.30pm on Thursday. On-line services, which include appointment books and repeat prescriptions, can be accessed from the practice website www.northkensingtonmedicalcentre.nhs.uk.

The information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as two on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. The practice area has a higher percentage than national average of male and female patients aged between 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49 and 50-54.

Updated 12 January 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. The practice was previously inspected on 23 July 2015 and rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at North Kensington Medical Centre on 23 November 2017 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

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 routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. The annual GP patient survey was above average for its satisfaction scores on consultations with GPs.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management team and GP partners.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider the infection control lead undertaking enhanced training to support them in this extended role.
• Maintain up-to-date records relating to facilities management undertaken by NHS Property Services (NHSPS), specifically remedial work identified from risk assessments, to satisfy the practice that all areas managed by NHSPS are compliant.
• Review the NICE Guidelines NG51: Sepsis Recognition, Diagnosis and Early Management to ensure the practice can appropriately assess all patients, including children, with suspected sepsis.
• Consider the guidance of Public Health England’s ordering, storing and handling vaccines (March 2014).
• Consider how patients with a hearing impairment would access the service.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 8 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. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. For those people with the most complex needs, the practice worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care. The practice had access to a primary care navigator to assist patients with complex needs over the age of 55 years to gain access to local social support.

Updated 8 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. The practice had a named clinical lead for safeguarding and staff had received role specific training in child protection. Alerts were placed on the patient electronic record system to make staff aware of vulnerable children and flag if there were any child protection plans in place. The practice offered a full programme of childhood immunisations in line with national guidance and uptake rates were above the CCG average. Urgent appointments were available on the day for children who were unwell and for those with serious medical conditions. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. The practice offered GP led antenatal and postnatal care. Practice nurses had received family planning training and offered contraception services.

Updated 8 October 2015

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 and had a range of enhanced services, for example dementia screening for at risk patients with referral to local memory services if required. It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs. The practice had access to a primary care navigator to assist elderly patients with social care needs and help them gain access to local support.

Updated 8 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. The practice nurses offered early appointments for cervical smear tests between 8.00 am and 9.00 am to improve access for patients who could not attend appointments during the working day.

Updated 8 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). Patients experiencing poor mental health were invited for six monthly review and health checks. 90% of people experiencing poor mental health had received a six month health review. The practice had access to an in-house counselling service twice a week which provided individual and couple counselling. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. The practice had a clinical lead to support patients with a diagnosis of dementia.

Updated 8 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice maintained a register of patients with learning disabilities and all of these patients had received an annual health checks within the last year. They offered longer appointments for people with a learning disability and maintained close links with the local learning disability team for support and advice as required. Homeless people and travellers were seen by the practice if they presented.