Background to this inspection
Updated
13 July 2018
Dr Amos Ramon- The New Coningsby Surgery, provides primary medical care for approximately 8,037 patients living in Coningsby and the neighbouring villages from a single surgery at 20 Silver Street, Coningsby, LN4 4SG
The service is provided under a General Medical Services contract with Lincolnshire East Clinical Commissioning Group.
Dr Ramon is registered to provide the regulated activities of; diagnostic and screening procedures; family planning services; surgical procedures; treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The practice was able to offer dispensing services to those patients on the practice list who lived more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy. On the day of our inspection that number was 2,788.
The area is less deprived than the national average, but there are isolated pockets of deprivation particularly in some of the outlying rural communities.
The village has a large Royal Air Force base, RAF Coningsby. Many of the service personnel’s dependents, particularly mothers and children are patients of the practice. The practice serves a community with a higher than national average of patients over the age of 65.
The practice is owned by a male GP and is additionally staffed by three salaried GPs of whom two are female. The whole time equivalent of GPs is 3.0 There is one nurse practitioner, three nurses and one health care assistant. They are supported by a phlebotomist, dispensers, receptionists and administration staff. A clinical pharmacist is employed for two days a week.
The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday, excepting Thursday when the surgery is open until 8pm. Appointments are from 8.30am to 1pm and 1.30pm to 6.30pm daily, excepting Thursday when appointments are available until 8pm. The practice is part of an extended access hub that enables patients to access GP services every weekday evening form 6.30 to 8pm and 8am to 7.30pm on Saturday and Sunday.
When the surgery is closed GP out-of- hours services are provided by Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust which is accessed via NHS111.
Updated
13 July 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 23 November 2017- Requires improvement)
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
This inspection was an a comprehensive announced inspection carried out on 16 May 2018 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 23 November 2017. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
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 was a process in place to help protect vulnerable patients from abuse.
- 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 involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Some patients reported that they experienced difficulty accessing the surgery by telephone to make appointments and that routine pre-bookable appointments were sometimes difficult to get.
- There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
- There was a strong and dedicated practice team.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Review the process of accessing the practice by telephone and continue to assess appointment availability.
- Review access arrangements for patients using wheelchairs by consideration of fitting an audible a signal to alert reception staff that a patient needed assistance is negotiating the entrance.
- Ensure that the private telephone numbers of staff are not visible to members of the public.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice