Archived: Packmoor Medical Centre

Updated 2 June 2016

Packmoor Medical Centre is operated by Network Healthcare Solutions Limited and registered with the Care Quality Commission as an organisational provider.

The provider holds an Alternative Medical Services Provider (APMS) contract with NHS England. At the time of our inspection 3,594 patients were registered at the practice.

Demographically the practice area is one of less deprivation than both the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and national average. The average age range of patients at the practice broadly follows the national average.

The practice is in a modern purpose built building. As well as providing the contracted range of primary medical services, the practice provides additional services including:

• Minor surgery

• Venepuncture (blood sample taking)

• NHS Health Checks

The practice is open each weekday from 8am to 6pm. During these times telephone lines and the reception desk are staffed and remain open. Extended appointments are offered on Tuesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm, the practice has plans to introduce a third late evening in the coming months. The practice has opted out of providing cover to patients outside of normal working hours. These out-of-hours services are provided by Staffordshire Doctors Urgent Care Limited.

Within the provider organisation there are a number of key leadership roles including medical, nursing and operational directors. Staffing at the practice includes:

• One whole time male lead GP and one part time locum female GP.

• One male Advanced Nurse Practitioner.

• Two female practice nurses (one of which is an independent prescriber).

• One female healthcare assistant.

• A practice manager, senior administrator and team of five reception/administrative staff.

Updated 2 June 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Packmoor Medical Centre on 3 December 2014 at which two breaches of legal requirements were found. The practice was rated as requires improvement overall. After the inspection, the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to:

• Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

• Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We undertook an announced comprehensive inspection of Packmoor Medical Centre on 11 April 2016. This inspection was carried out to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the practice after our comprehensive inspection on 3 December 2014 had been made. The inspection concluded that the practice had followed their action plan and met legal requirements. The scale of improvements made has led to the practice receiving an overall rating of good.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:

• Implement a consistent system for checking that monitoring for patients, who take long term medicines on a shared care basis, has been provided before the medicines are issued.

• Improve the identification of patients who may be carers.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 2 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions.

• Patients at the highest risk to unplanned hospital admissions were identified and care plans had been implemented to meet their health and care needs.
• Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed.
• All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medicines needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.
• Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and had undertaken additional training.

Updated 2 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.

• There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations.

• Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals, and we saw evidence to confirm this.

• The practice’s uptake for the cervical screening programme was 86% which was higher than the CCG average of 80% and national average of 82%.

• The practice was young person-friendly and offered condoms, pregnancy testing and Chlamydia testing for all aged 15-24.

Updated 2 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.

• The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population.

• The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and urgent appointments for those with enhanced needs.

• The practice allocated a daily appointment, for those able to attend the practice, for patients from a care home to see a GP if required.

• Two local care homes had regular weekly proactive visits to review patients care and treatment needs.

Updated 2 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students).

• The practice offered appointments outside of core working hours and provided online services to enable patients to book appointments, order repeat medicines and access some parts of their health records online.

• Health promotion and screening services reflected the health needs of this group.

Updated 2 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

• Performance for poor mental indicators was better than local and national averages. For example, 91% of patients with severe poor mental health had a recent comprehensive care plan in place compared with the CCG average of 86% and national average of 88%.

• The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

• The practice had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency where they may have been experiencing poor mental health.

• Staff had a good understanding of how to support patients with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 2 June 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.

• The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including known vulnerable adults, those who were housebound and patients with a learning disability.

• Housebound patients were contacted twice a year as an opportunity to check on their health and care needs.

• The practice regularly worked with other health care professionals in the case management of vulnerable patients.

• The practice informed vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.