Archived: Doclands Medical Centre

Updated 8 October 2018

Doclands Medical Centre is situated in Blanche Street on the outskirts of Preston city centre at PR2 2RL and is part of the NHS Greater Preston Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Services are provided under a personal medical service (PMS) contract with NHS England.

The surgery is housed in single-story purpose-built accommodation and offers access and facilities for disabled patients and visitors. The practice plans to move to new purpose-built premises in November 2018. The practice website can be found at www.doclandsmc.co.uk.

There are approximately 6946 registered patients. The practice population includes a lower number (14.5%) of people over the age of 65, in comparison with the CCG average of 16.4% and England average of 17.3%. There are a higher number of patients aged between 25 and 35 years of age, 17.5%, compared to 14% locally and 14.5% nationally.

The practice sits at midpoint on the scale of deprivation. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as five on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.

The practice opens from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday with a nurse-led clinical cervical screening clinic offered on Monday evenings from 6.30pm to 8pm. Extended GP surgery hours are available on weekday evenings until 8pm and Sunday mornings from 9am to 11am at a neighbouring practice through an arrangement with other local surgeries. Appointments at the practice are from 9am to 11.30am and 2.30pm to 5.30pm. When the practice is closed, patients are able to access out of hours services offered locally by the provider GoToDoc by telephoning NHS 111.

The practice has two male GP partners offering seven sessions a week each and one female regular locum GP for one session a week. There are three advanced nurse practitioners, two practice nurses, one healthcare assistant, a practice manager, deputy practice manager, office manager, reception and administration staff, one of whom also acts as the practice medicines co-ordinator. The practice is a GP training practice.

The practice uses a GP telephone triage service each day to assess the health care needs of patients who request same day appointments. Both urgent and routine appointments are available each day. On line services include appointment booking and ordering repeat prescriptions.

The practice is registered with CQC to provide family planning services, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, surgical procedures and diagnostic and screening procedures as their regulated activities.

Updated 8 October 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating 16/02/2018 – Requires Improvement)

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Doclands Medical Centre on 14 September 2018 to follow up breaches of regulations identified at our inspection in February 2018 and to see whether our recommendations for improvements at our February inspection had been addressed. We inspected evidence relating to the Safe and Well-led key questions.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had improved their systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and changed their processes.
• The practice proactively developed and reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment were delivered according to evidence- based guidelines. Quality improvement was central to the practice service delivery.
• Practice policies and procedures had been reviewed and improved.
• The governance of the practice had been strengthened. Leaders had introduced new systems to assure themselves policies and procedures were operating as intended.
• There was a new system in place for managers to ensure staff training was appropriate and up-to-date.
• Communication within the practice with all staff was comprehensive.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had implemented several quality improvement projects related to patient clinical care. These allowed for patient-centred care and staff training and development. We saw the implementation of a complex care patient pathway that gave patients access to a healthcare assistant, a practice nurse and a GP on the same visit. The practice was monitoring outcomes for these patients and early indications showed a decrease in attendance at the hospital accident and emergency department.
• The practice had introduced easy to read bulletins to share practice developments with all staff. We saw bulletins produced following clinical meetings to share clinical developments and future plans with administrative staff and vice versa. There was also a “New Developments” bulletin to share headline general practice development information with all staff.

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

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Updated 8 October 2018

Updated 8 October 2018

Updated 8 October 2018

Updated 8 October 2018

Updated 8 October 2018

Updated 8 October 2018