Whitehill Surgery

Updated 20 December 2018

Whitehill Surgery is located within Aylesbury town centre and provides general medical services to approximately 14,550 registered patients.

Clinical services are provided from:

• Whitehill Surgery, Oxford Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP19 8EN
• Fairford Leys Surgery, 65 Kingsgate, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP19 8GG

We only visited one location (Whitehill Surgery) as part of this focused inspection. However, the written patient feedback on CQC comment cards we received related to both locations.

The practice has core opening hours from 8.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday to enable patients to contact the practice. The branch surgery is open every weekday morning between 8.30am and 12noon, Monday afternoons between 2pm and 5.30pm and provides early morning appointments between 7.00am and 8.00am on Tuesday and Thursday. The practice is open on one Saturday morning per calendar month for pre-booked GP appointments.

Patients at the practice could access ‘improved access’ appointments at primary care hubs across Aylesbury and Buckinghamshire. These improved access appointments were booked via the patients registered practice and offered a variety of appointments including up until 8pm Monday to Friday, selected hours on Saturdays and 9am until 1pm on Sunday and Bank Holidays.

The practice has a transient patient population; patients are often outside of the country for long periods. According to national data there is minimal deprivation in Buckinghamshire; however, the practice is located within a pocket of high deprivation. People living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services and people outside of the country for long periods often has an impact on screening and recall programmes.

The practice also provides primary care GP services for three local care and nursing homes (approximately 130 patients) within the local area and a specialist residential continuing rehabilitation centre for people with acquired brain injuries (approximately 21 patients).

The practice comprises of seven GP partners (three male, four female), two Salaried GPs (both female), a male Advanced Nurse Practitioner who was also a Physician Associate, a male Paramedic Practitioner and a male Clinical Pharmacist. The all-female nursing team consists of four practice nurses, a community practice nurse and two health care assistants with a mix of skills and experience.

A practice manager, an assistant manager, finance manager and a team of reception and administrative staff undertake the day to day management and running of the practice.

Out of hours care is accessed by contacting NHS 111.

The practice is registered by the Care Quality Commission to carry out the following regulated activities: Maternity and midwifery services, Family planning, Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Surgical procedures and Diagnostic and screening procedures.

Updated 20 December 2018

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Whitehill Surgery in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire on 12 December 2018.

This inspection was undertaken because when we last inspected the practice in June 2018 patient and external stakeholder (care homes and nursing homes) feedback advised they had difficulty in accessing care and treatment. Patients told us although the appointment system had improved there were still delays and barriers accessing the service.

Consequently, the practice was found in breach of regulation. This led to the practice being rated as requires improvement for provision of responsive services whilst rated good overall.

We based our judgement of the responsiveness of this service on a combination of:

• What we found when we inspected

• Information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and

• Information from the provider, patients, external stakeholders and other organisations.

We have now rated this practice as good for providing responsive services because improvements had been made in accordance with the action plan the practice sent us following the June 2018 inspection. The practice remains rated good overall and good for all population groups.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had effectively assessed, monitored and improved the quality of the services provided. This included completion of strategy business meetings, attendance at external courses and subsequent action plans with a view to improve access and overall patient satisfaction.

• Additional clinicians had been added to the practice team with a view to increase GP availability.

• A new telephony system had been installed in July 2018 and a new appointment system was due to be launched in January 2019.

• The practice had launched a patient steering group which aimed to evolve into a Patient Participation Group (PPG).

• The practice had completed two in-house patient satisfaction survey, which saw improvement in terms of patient satisfaction.

• Patient feedback from various sources showed improvement in terms of access to care. This included external stakeholder feedback which highlighted improved engagement, clearer lines of communication and subsequent improved levels of satisfaction regarding access to services. However, some feedback still reported further improvements could be made to the telephony system.

• The practice had taken action to increase the number of patients attending the cervical screening programme. This included additional recall processes and correspondence from named GPs. We saw these actions had increased the overall uptake rate.