Watton Medical Practice

Updated 16 April 2018

Watton Medical Practice provides services to approximately 12,200 patients in Watton, a rural area south of Norwich. The practice has three GP partners (all male), two salaried GPs (female) and also employs locum GPs. There is a practice manager and finance manager. The practice employs a nurse manager, three senior nurses, two nurse practitioners, two practice nurses, two healthcare assistants and an emergency care practitioner. Other staff include a team of receptionists, administration staff and secretaries. The practice holds a General Medical Services contract with South Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Watton Medical Practice has completed the contractual process of forming an alliance with two other local practices to further enhance the services offered to patients. The alliance was due to Watton Medical Practice struggling with low staffing numbers and the practice therefore found it difficult to continue providing medical services to its population. The alliance is part of a four year plan of driving improvement in Watton Medical Practice.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Thursday. The practice offers extended hours appointments between 7am to 8am on Tuesdays and 6.30pm to 8pm on Wednesdays. The practice is open between 8.30am and 5pm on a Friday and closes between 12.20pm and 2pm on Wednesdays. During this time, a duty GP is available for any medical emergencies. Appointments can be booked up to six weeks in advance with GPs and nurses. Urgent appointments are available for people that need them, as well as telephone appointments. Online appointments are available.

When the practice is closed patients are automatically diverted to the GP out of hour’s service provided by Integrated Care 24. Patients can also access advice via the NHS 111 service.

We reviewed the most recent data available to us from Public Health England which showed the practice has a smaller number of patients aged 30 to 44 years old compared with the national average. It has a larger number of patients aged 65 to 85 compared to the national average. Income deprivation affecting children is 15%, which is higher than the CCG average of 13% and lower than the national average of 20%. Income deprivation affecting older people is 13%, which is higher than the CCG average of 12% and lower than the national average of 16%. Life expectancy for patients at the practice is 80 years for males and 84 years for females; this is comparable to both the CCG and England life expectancy which is 79 years and 83 years.

Updated 16 April 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Watton Medical Practice on 20 March 2018. The surgery was inspected on 15 August 2017 and rated as requires improvement overall; with a rating of requires improvement for all domains and population groups. The practice was given requirement notices for regulation 12 (safe care and treatment) and regulation 17 (good governance). This inspection was to inspect whether sufficient changes had been made in response to those requirement notices.

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

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

At this inspection we found:

• 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.

• Arrangements were in place to support safe prescribing and the prescribing policy had been updated.

• Infection prevention and control was well monitored in the practice. During this inspection there were no out of date items found in clinical rooms.

• 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.

• We found some exception reporting was above local and national averages, however there was evidence that this had improved since the last inspection.

• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

• The practice was aware of the low results for the GP Patient Survey and they had already changed the appointments system to improve access. The practice had also completed their own survey which showed marked improvements in patient satisfaction.

• Staff reported that they felt confident about the changes made and were positive about the future of the practice.

• There were infrequent administration and reception meetings to share learning. However, there were systems within the practice to keep staff up to date with information.

• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to review and improve exception reporting, specifically that relating to mental health.

• Continue to review and improve patient satisfaction relating to access, specifically for outcomes relating to access via the telephone.

• Continue to review and improve patient satisfaction relating to caring outcomes.

• Improve the frequency of administration and reception staff meetings to ensure appropriate information is discussed.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 16 April 2018

Updated 16 April 2018

Updated 16 April 2018

Updated 16 April 2018

Updated 16 April 2018

Updated 16 April 2018