The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

St Anne's Group Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

161 Station Road, Herne Bay, Kent, CT6 5NF (01227) 742226

Provided and run by:
The Heron Medical Practice

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about St Anne's Group Practice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about St Anne's Group Practice, you can give feedback on this service.

19 February 2020

During an annual regulatory review

We reviewed the information available to us about St Anne's Group Practice on 19 February 2020. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.

22 May to 22 May 2018

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Outstanding

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St Anne’s Group Practice on 22 May 2018. This inspection was carried out under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

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 practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
  • Patients we spoke with and some comment cards indicated that patients sometimes found it difficult to get through to the practice on the telephone and to access routine GP appointments. The practice was aware of this and were looking at establishing a reception hub to deal with phone calls in a different way. Urgent appointments were available on the same day.
  • The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

  • The practice worked collaboratively with a health and social care organisation that worked across mental health, learning disability, substance misuse, primary care, the criminal justice system and employment.
  • The practice had employed a pharmacist and Herne Bay Town had also employed a pharmacist, between them they were doing polypharmacy medication reviews as well as post discharge medicines reconciliation and though not specifically targeting the elderly, inevitably however, because of their demographics, this was often focussed on elderly patients.
  • The practice and community pharmacists were working with the other Herne Bay practices and starting to develop a one stop shop for Diabetes. This would be for the whole town, however currently it was just for patients at St Anne’s Group Practice. This was run by a GP, a practice nurse and a pharmacist. The plan was to relocate to the Queen Victoria Hospital and that both practices in Herne Bay would cover on a rota basis.
  • There was a proactive approach to understanding the needs of different groups of patients and to deliver care in a way that met these needs and promoted equality. This included patients who were in vulnerable circumstances or who had complex needs. For example, the practice funded a GP led substance misuse service in partnership with a national health and social care provider that provided patients with access to weekly clinics.
  • The practice had been proactively involved with the Herne Bay Care Home pilot scheme, which was part of the East Kent Frailty Service being developed across the whole health Economy. The project which was funded for three months, targeted care homes which were then visited by a community geriatrician and a GP who would arrange with the home to review patients and produce high quality anticipatory care plans for patients. The second phase of the project which was about to be implemented was the reactive element, whereby the care home would have a single number to ring, instead of defaulting to 999 which would enable the care home to get immediate clinical advice or a visit if necessary to try and reduce further hospital admissions. The practice continued to support this scheme without any funding.
  • There was seven days a week access to minor surgery at St Anne’s Group Practice including cataract surgery, dermatology and carpal tunnel surgery. The practice had performed approximately 220 per year which was 35% of East Kent procedures. Patients attended the Beltinge location minor surgery unit from all East Kent CCG’s (clinical commissioning groups). The success rate was last measured up to January 2017 and the success rate measured by patient self-rating questionnaires stood at 88%.
  • The practice had had an increase in the number of MARAC (multi-agency risk assessment conference) referrals to the point where they are one of the highest areas in East Kent.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

5 October 2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St Anne's Group Practice on 5 October 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system for reporting and recording significant events.
  • The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems, processes and practices to help keep patients safe and safeguarded from abuse. However, during the inspection we found one out of date sharps box which had not been identified during the infection prevention and control or waste audits. This was removed by the practice during the inspection.
  • 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 and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
  • Patients we spoke with and some comment cards indicated that patients sometimes found it difficult to get through to the practice on the telephone and to access routine GP appointments. The practice was aware of this and was in the process of implementing an action plan to improve patient access. Urgent appointments were available on the same day and patients had access to telephone appointments.
  • 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 sought feedback from staff, which it acted on. Whilst the practice told us there was a virtual patient participation group (PPG), members from the group that we spoke with felt that they did not receive or have regular communication with the practice. The practice had contacted the clinical commissioning group (CCG) to access support from Healthwatch in order to improve how it accessed patient feedback.
  • The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice:

  • The involvement of other organisations and the local community was integral to how services were planned to help ensure that services met patients’ needs. There were innovative approaches to providing integrated patient-centred pathways of care that involved other service providers, particularly for patients with multiple and complex needs. For example, there was seven days a week access to minor surgery including cataract surgery, dermatology and carpal tunnel surgery. The practice had performed approximately 2800 carpal tunnel procedures (equalling about 40% of the total carpal tunnel procedures undertaken in East Kent). An audit examining outcomes for this procedure demonstrated the practice had better outcomes, in some areas, than other providers in East Kent. For example, for grade three carpal tunnel surgery the practice had a success rate of 89%, East Kent 82% (data supplied by practice). Records showed that 1400 hundred cataract operations had been undertaken at the practice in 2015 and 1200 in 2016 to date. The practice had performed approximately 2800 vasectomies. One of the GP partners was able to offer a wide range of dermatological procedures including skin grafts.
  • There was a proactive approach to understanding the needs of different groups of patients and to deliver care in a way that met these needs and promoted equality. This included patients who were in vulnerable circumstances or who had complex needs. For example, the practice ran a GP led substance misuse service in partnership with a national health and social care provider that provided patients with access to weekly clinics.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

  • Review infection prevention and control audits and waste audits to help ensure effectiveness.
  • Review the process for recording temperatures on fridges that are used for storing medicines to include a column to explain any out of range temperatures.
  • Review opportunities for patient feedback and communicate regularly with the PPG.
  • Continue to review and improve patients’ experience of the service, including in areas such as telephone access and access to GP appointments.
  • Review the recruitment process to help ensure employment checks are completed for all new members of staff.
  • Review how meetings and communication with staff from the reception and administration teams is undertaken.
  • Continue to improve systems and processes to monitor and recall patients with long-term conditions including asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD- the name for a collection of lung diseases).

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice