Background to this inspection
Updated
18 December 2018
St Philips Medical Centre provides primary medical services through a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. The practice is located within the London Borough of Westminster in central West London but is contracted to provide GP services by NHS Camden Clinical Commissioning Group.
The services are provided from a single location within premises leased from the London School of Economics (LSE). Although the practice is also contracted to provide NHS services to the local population, ninety percent of the practice list is drawn from the student and staff community at LSE, the majority of whom are students, aged between 19 and 25. There are about 9,500 patients registered with the practice, with a high annual turnover as many are postgraduate students, including a significant cohort of foreign students, who move away from the area after their year of study is complete.
The practice is open between 8:30am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available from 9:30am to 12:30pm every morning and from 1:30pm to 6:30pm daily.
There are three GP partners, three salaried GPs and two locum GPs. They are supported by two nurses who both work part-time, one of whom is a qualified nurse practitioner. There is a health care assistant, a practice manager who is also the practice manager at a nearby GP practice with which St Philips Medical Centre has a close relationship, an assistant practice manager and seven administrative staff. The practice is also a training practice for trainee GPs and at the time of our inspection, there was one GP registrar. (A GP registrar is a qualified doctor who is training to become a GP).
There are also arrangements to ensure patients receive urgent medical assistance when the practice is closed. Out of hours services are provided by a local provider. Patients are advised to call 111 who will direct their call to the out of hours service to provide telephone advice or make a home visit.
Updated
18 December 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating November 2017 – Overall Good; Effective was rated Requires Improvement with no breach of regulations)
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 comprehensive inspection at St Philips Medical Centre on 25 October 2018. This inspection was undertaken as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
- The practice had a clear understanding of the unique nature of the practice list and structured services to meet the needs of the practice population.
- The practice had followed through with action plans discussed at the previous inspection, including improvements to the patient recall system.
- The practice had 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.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- There was a clear management structure in place and staff had lead roles in practice service delivery. The practice team worked well together and practice governance processes were comprehensive.
- Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported they were able to access care when they needed it.
- There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
- The practice had continued to undertake quality improvement activity and could demonstrate how this activity was linked to the needs of the practice population.
- There was a clear vision and leaders were able to describe a set of guiding principles around which it structured its services. The practice had a realistic strategy and supporting business plans to achieve priorities.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Follow through with plans to ensure that appropriate medicine review dates are in place for patients who are issued with repeat prescriptions.
- Continue to monitor the health of patients diagnosed with diabetes with a view to improving clinical outcomes.
- Continue to encourage eligible patients to participate in public health screening programmes, including cervical screening with a view to improving uptake rates.
- Continue to review the system for the identification of carers to ensure all carers have been identified and provided with support.
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.
Working age people (including those recently retired and students)
Updated
18 December 2018
People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia)
Updated
18 December 2018