• Doctor
  • GP practice

Trinity Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

1 Goldstone Villas, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 3AT (01273) 744910

Provided and run by:
Trinity Medical Centre

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 24 February 2020

Trinity Medical Centre is located at 1 Goldstone Villas Hove East Sussex BN3 3AT. The practice has good transport links and a pharmacy nearby.

Trinity Medical Centre is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities; Treatment of disease, disorder or injury; Surgical procedures; Diagnostic and screening procedures; Maternity and midwifery services and Family planning services.

The provider is situated in the NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 23,423 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. They offer a number of services for patients including; sexual health advice and family planning, chronic disease management, smoking cessation, health checks and travel vaccines and advice.

There are currently nine GP partners (male and female) and seven salaried GPs working at the practice. There are two nurse practitioners, five practice nurses, one assistant practitioner and three healthcare assistants. The practice management team is led by a practice manager, with a deputy practice manager, finance manager, office and reception supervisors and a team of administrative and reception staff.

Data available to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) shows the number of patients from birth to 18 years old served by the practice is below the national average. The number of patients aged 85 years and over is below the national average, but about the average for the local area. The National General Practice Profile states that 89% of the practice population is from a white background with a further 11% of the population originating from black, Asian, mixed or other non-white ethnic groups. Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as five, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is comparable to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is comparable to the national average of 83 years.

Trinity Medical Centre is open from Monday to Friday between 8:30am and 6:30pm. They offered extended hours clinics with GPs and nurses, in morning and evenings, 4 days a week

Appointments can be booked over the telephone, online or in person at the surgery. Patients are provided with information on how to access an out of hour’s service by calling the surgery or viewing the practice website.

When the practice is closed patients are asked to call 111, which is a free 24-hour helpline to help patients access the appropriate out of hours care. The out of hours service offers appointments from 6am to 8am on weekday mornings and throughout the day and evening during weekends. Alternatively, patients can see a doctor or nurse 7 days a week at the walk-in clinic at the Brighton Station Health Centre. The Centre is open from 8am to 8pm every day of the year.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 24 February 2020

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Trinity Medical Centre on 14 January 2020 because breaches of regulation were found at our previous inspection. We also followed up on concerns received at CQC about how information is managed at the practice.

At the last inspection in November 2018 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:

  • A disclosure and barring service (DBS) check or risk assessment had not always been carried out for non-clinical chaperones.
  • Actions following an infection control audit had not been completed.
  • There was no system to monitor the ongoing registration of nurses.

In November 2018 we also found areas where the provider should make improvements:

  • Continue to review the uptake of childhood immunisations with a view to supporting continuing improvements.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

Overall the practice continues to be rated as good and is now rated good for providing safe services.

Details of our findings

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had policies and processes in place to make sure disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks were completed for chaperones, and the ongoing registration of nurses was monitored.
  • The practice had acted on issues identified from infection control audits and cleanliness checks.
  • There were processes to identify, understand, monitor and address current and future risks. The practice was experiencing staffing challenges, but they had safety measures in place to ensure risk was minimised.
  • Incoming and outgoing correspondence was processed in a timely manner, by an appropriate staff member, and recorded onto the clinical system.
  • Staff were positive about working at the practice and they felt supported by the management team.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Review and improve the systems to record completed actions as a result of infection control audits.
  • Continue to monitor systems and processes to ensure information is processed and recorded in a timely manner.
  • Continue to review and take action to improve child immunisation uptake rates.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.