Archived: The Practice Canberra

Updated 5 March 2015

The Practice Canberra was opened in January 2010. It was commissioned due to a growing local population and a review of service provision in the area. The Practice operates from the Parkview Centre for Health and Wellbeing, Cranston Court, 56 Bloemfontein Road, White City, London, W12 7FG. A collaborative care centre shared with three other GP practices. The practice provides NHS primary care medical services through an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contract to 3800 patients in the local area. The practice is part of the NHS Hammersmith and Fulham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which is made up of 31 GP practices. The practice serves a young population group with patients predominantly in the 20 to 40 years age range. The practice staff comprises two male GPs, one female GP, a practice nurse, three health care assistants and a small team of reception/administration staff. The practice is managed as part of The Practice PLC with 38 practices as well as walk-in centres across the UK and additional support is provided by the corporate team. The practice opening hours are 8.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Friday and 10.00am to 2.00pm on Saturdays. The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients and refers patients to the ‘111’ service.

The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder and injury, surgical procedures, family planning and maternity and midwifery services.

The practice provides a range of services including clinics for patients with long-term conditions, wound care, travel advice, vaccinations and immunisations, family planning, cervical smears and spirometry. The practice also provides INR monitoring, smoking cessation clinics, health advice and blood pressure monitoring.

The practice works with the World Health Organisation Collaborative Care Centre at Imperial College London and facilitates visits of foreign delegates who wish to observe and learn about UK General Practice.

Updated 5 March 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of The Practice Canberra on 8 October 2014. We rated the practice as ‘Good’ for the service being safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. We rated the practice as ‘Good’ for the care provided to older people and people with long term conditions and ‘Good’ for the care provided to, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people living in vulnerable circumstances and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

We gave the practice an overall rating of ‘Good.'

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients were positive about the practice and services provided. They were happy with the opening hours and flexible appointment system.
• Patients said that staff were welcoming, caring and treated them with dignity and respect and the GPs involved them in decisions about their treatment and care.
• Systems were in place to keep patients safe including incident reporting protocols, safeguarding and infection control procedures.
• Staff were appropriately qualified to deliver effective care and treatment in line with NICE guidance.
• The practice had a clear vision and strategy to address health inequalities in the local community and staff worked as a team to achieve this.
• The practice proactively sought feedback from patients and used it to make improvements to the services provided.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice offered an innovative service for 120 homeless people working with a homeless charity.
• Excellent access to the practice with 8:00am to 8:00pm opening hours on a weekday and Saturday morning appointments.
• Ring fenced appointments for vulnerable patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 5 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people with long-term conditions. The practice had effective recall systems and protocols in place for the care of patients with long-term conditions including input from the health care assistants, practice nurse and GPs. The GPs took lead roles in the management of long-term conditions including heart disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes and were supported by the practice nurse to provide effective care. The practice monitored patients with long-term conditions using quality and outcomes framework (QOF) performance. The practice had achieved 98% in its performance against the various disease registers within the QOF framework in the previous year. The practice participated in an integrated care pilot (ICP) which provided an enhanced level of input from specialists to improve the health and wellbeing of patients with long-term conditions.

Updated 5 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of families, children and young people. The practice provided a range of services for families, babies, children and young people including weekly women’s only sessions with a female GP who specialised in women’s health and family planning, a weekly baby clinic, baby immunisations, ante-natal and post-natal care and child development checks. The practice worked with innovative local services, such as the neighbourhood mums and dads project and the family nurse partnership providing specialist nurse support for new parents. The practice participated in a connecting care for children group pilot, a partnership across GP practices and paediatric services from Imperial college healthcare NHS trust to provide a multi-disciplinary level of care for children. The practice worked with the health visitor who attended practice meetings to discuss any concerns the practice or the health visiting team may have in relation to children. The lead GP attended child protection case conferences and a system was in place to alert staff if a child was on a child protection plan.

Updated 5 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of older people. The practice had a range of services targeted at older people. For example the practice participated in an integrated care pilot (ICP) which provided an enhanced level of input from specialists to improve the health and wellbeing of older patients with complex needs. The pilot involved the practice working with a hospital consultant to run a virtual ward (A virtual ward uses the systems and staffing of a hospital ward to provide preventative care for people in their own homes). The practice worked with community independence services and health and social care coordinator services to support older patients to retain their independence in their own homes and reduce hospital admissions. The practice had a vulnerable register for patients over 75 years, a named GP and care plans in place. The practice provided a carer’s identification scheme to ensure carer’s were included in the care provided to elderly patients when visiting the GP. The practice worked with a local befriending service providing social contact and companionship to older patients.

Updated 5 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of working age people (including those recently retired and students). The practice provided easy access to this population group. For example appointments were available early mornings, late evenings and weekends for those who were working or in education. In addition the practice offered telephone consultations and online booking for this group.

Updated 5 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice participated in a shared care mental health Locally Enhanced Service (LES). Through this LES the practice communicated with the community mental health area teams to facilitate the discharge of stable patients to primary care. These patients were followed up by the practice with the support of a primary care mental health support worker who attended the practice weekly and conducted joint reviews. The lead GP for mental health met regularly with the mental health worker to discuss patients and referrals to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services. If an acute assessment was needed patients would be referred to the local mental health assessment service. The practice participated in a dementia Directed Enhanced Service (DES) to profile patients who may be at risk of dementia.

Updated 5 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the population group of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice collaborated with a local homeless service and provided easy access for homeless patients. At the time of our inspection there were 120 homeless patients or those with no fixed abode registered at the practice. The practice provided a multi-lingual advocacy service to help those with English as a second language with job searches or benefit claims. The practice worked closely with the local community translating and interpreting service, a collaboration through which they provided health specific ESOL (English Speaking for Other Languages) courses and classes to help those with English as a second language better access healthcare. The practice had an extremely low incidence of patients with a learning disability, with only one patient on the register. However the practice had developed close links and communication with the local learning disability team. The practice was also a registered distributor of food-bank vouchers.