Background to this inspection
Updated
12 June 2019
Staplehurst Health Centre is located at Offens Drive, Tonbridge, Staplehurst, Kent, TN12 0LB. The practice has good transport links and there is a pharmacy nearby.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures, family planning and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
Staplehurst Health Centre is situated in a semi-rural area of the West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 5,541 patients under the terms of an alternative provider medical services (APMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The provider is a partnership (Malling Health UK Ltd), who registered with the CQC in December 2012. The practice employs two salaried GPs (male and female), a practice manager, two practice nurses (male and female), a health care assistant (female), a physicians associate (female) and an assistant practice manager (female), as well as reception and administration staff. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, West Kent Health Limited (which is a GP federation).
The number of patients over the age of 65 is above the national average (practice 33%, national 27%). The National General Practice Profile states that 97% of the practice population is from a white background with a further 3% 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 ten, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 78 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 85 years compared to the national average of 83 years.
Updated
12 June 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Staplehurst Health Centre on 9 May 2019 as part of our inspection programme.
At the last inspection in September 2018 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe, effective and well-led services because:
- The practice’s systems, processes and practices did not always keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
- Patients were at risk of harm due to medicines management procedures not always being implemented effectively by the practice.
- Improvements had been made to the way in which significant events were being investigated and recorded. However, the practice was unable to demonstrate that they recorded these appropriately, as well as learned from and made improvements when things went wrong.
- Patients did not always find the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were not able to access care when they needed it.
- Governance arrangements were not always effective.
We also found areas where the provider should make improvements:
- Continue with their plan to improve telephone access.
- Continue to monitor and improve timely access to the service.
At this inspection, we found that the provider had satisfactorily addressed all of these areas.
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.
We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.
We found that:
- The practice’s systems, processes and practices had been improved to ensure they always kept people safe and safeguarded from abuse. The whole team was engaged in reviewing and improving safety and safeguarding systems.
- Significant improvements had been made to the way in which significant events were being investigated, recorded and monitored.Learning was shared and improvements made when things went wrong.
- Medicines management procedures were now being implemented effectively by the practice.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
- Systems and processes to ensure good governance had been significantly improved to ensure they were implemented effectively.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Continue to implement and monitor activities to sustain improvements for prescribing performance, where these were lower or higher than local and national averages.
- Continue to implement and monitor activities to sustain improvement to national GP Survey results, that were below local and national averages.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Bennyworth BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice