Archived: Middleport Medical Centre

Updated 19 March 2015

Network Healthcare Solutions provides primary medical services to over 30,000 registered patients from two GP Access Centres and eight GP practices in Staffordshire and Hertfordshire. Middleport Medical Centre is one of these practices.

Middleport Medical Centre is located in the city of Stoke-on-Trent and provides primary care services for patients in Middleport and the surrounding area. It has a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract with NHS England. The service is responsible for providing primary care for 2243 patients and has a large number of patients who live in local nursing homes, 6% of the total patient list.

The practice has 3 part time GPs, (all male) and includes one salaried GP and two long standing locum GPs. There is a practice manager, a nurse practitioner, a practice nurse, a healthcare assistant, a senior receptionist and a reception team.

The practice does not provide an out of hours service to their own patients. Patients are provided with information about the local out of hours services based in Stoke-on-Trent which they can access by using the NHS 111 phone number.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has had no previous concerns about the practice.

Updated 19 March 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this service on 12 December 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.

The overall rating for this service is good. We found the practice to be good in the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led domains. We found that the practice provided good care to all groups of its patient population.

Our key findings were:

• Patients received evidence based assessments and care and treatment was planned and delivered to promote a good quality of life.
• Staff treated patients with respect and kindness. Patients told us that staff were caring and compassionate.
• Services were planned and delivered to meet the needs of the patients. Patients were generally positive about the access to appointments.
• The leadership and management within the practice promoted an open and transparent culture. Staff felt able to contribute to the running of the service.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. The provider should:

• Develop the criteria for significant events to ensure all significant occurrences (both positive and negative) are investigated and analysed to realise continuous improvement in the service
• Ensure that action taken following receipt of relevant national patient safety alerts is recorded and shared with staff
• Develop an action plan to demonstrate the effectiveness of actions taken to reduce the amount of antibiotic prescribing within the practice
• Develop and complete an on-going programme of clinical audits to evidence the quality of care provided and demonstrate improving patient outcomes
• Demonstrate and record evidence of effective joint working for patients with palliative care needs
• Ensure information about how to make a complaint is easily available for patients both on line and in reception and provide evidence that learning from complaints influences improvements in service delivery

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 19 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long term conditions. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All patients with a long term condition had a structured annual review to check that their health and medication 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.

Updated 19 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. Emergency processes were in place and referrals were made for children and pregnant women whose health deteriorated suddenly.

Updated 19 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice was responsive to the needs of older people and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 19 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group.

Updated 19 March 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia.

The practice told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations including MIND. It had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency (A&E) where they may have been experiencing poor mental health.

Updated 19 March 2015

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 homeless people, travellers and those patients with a learning disability.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.