The Guildhall and Barrow Surgery

Updated 4 February 2019

• The name of the registered provider is The Guildhall and Barrow Surgery.
• The address of the two locations where patients can be seen are Guildhall Surgery, Lower Baxter Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1ET and Barrow surgery, Barrow Hill, Barrow, Suffolk, IP29 5DX. In April 2009, The Guildhall Surgery merged with Barrow Hill Surgery to become The Guildhall and Barrow Surgery.
• The practice is registered to provide diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
• The Guildhall and Barrow Surgery is located within the Suffolk local authority and is 1 of 23 practices serving the NHS West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
• Guildhall and Barrow Surgery provides services to approximately 12,000 patients from the two surgeries.
• The practice has five GP partners (three male and two female) and six salaried GPs (five female and one male). The practice also employs a practice manager, assistant practice manager, a patient services manager and an IT manager, a clinical pharmacist, a nurse practitioner, five practice nurses, two healthcare assistants, three dispensers and a team of reception and administration staff.
• The practice is an approved training practice for doctors training to become general practitioners.
• The practice holds a Personal Medical Services contract with NHS England. The practice is able to offer dispensing services to those patients on the practice list who live more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy. We visited the dispensary as part of this inspection.
• The Guildhall Surgery is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday with extended hours on a Monday evening from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.  Barrow Surgery is open 8.30am to 12.30pm and 2.30pm to 6.15pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Tuesdays the practice is open 8.30am to 12.30pm and 3.30pm to 6pm . Appointments can be booked in advance and the practice was part of a local scheme to offer appointments in the evening and on weekend mornings. Urgent appointments are available for people that need them. Online appointments are available to book in advance.
• When the practice is closed patients are automatically diverted to the GP out of hours service provided by Care UK. 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 18 years or under compared with the national average. It has a larger number of patients aged 65 and over compared to the national average.
• The practice is in the eighth deprivation decile, where one indicates areas with the most deprivation and ten indicates the least deprivation. Life expectancy for patients at the practice is 81 years for males and 84 years for females which is comparable to the CCG and National average.

Updated 4 February 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Guildhall and Barrow Surgery on 19 December 2018 as part of our inspection programme. The practice was previously inspected in December 2014 and rated as good.

Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based 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, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as good overall.

This means that:

• People were protected from avoidable harm and abuse and that legal requirements were met.
• Patients had good outcomes because they received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The practice was fully engaged with reviewing and monitoring the clinical service they offered and used this information to make changes and drive care.
• Patients were supported, treated with dignity and respect and were involved in their care.
• People’s needs were met by the way in which services were organised and delivered.
• The leadership, governance and culture of the practice promoted the delivery of high quality person-centred care.
• Staff reported they were happy to work in the practice and proud of the changes that had been made.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Complete prescribing audits for the non-clinical prescribers.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

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

Updated 4 February 2019

Updated 4 February 2019

Updated 4 February 2019

Updated 4 February 2019

Updated 4 February 2019

Updated 4 February 2019