Strouts Place Medical Centre

Updated 2 March 2017

Strouts Place Medical Centre is located in Bethnal Green in East London. It is a member of NHS Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The practice is located in the second more deprived decile of areas in England. Life expectancy is 9 years lower for men and 4 years lower for women compared to the national average. Thirty eight per cent of children live in poverty.

The practice has approximately 3,800 registered patients. The provider told us the practice had seen 67% of its patients in the last six months. The practice has many more patients in the 20 to 44 years age range than the England average, and far fewer patients in the 60 to 85+ years age range than the England average. Thirty six per cent of the local population use Bengali as their main language and 54% use English.

Services are provided by Strouts Place Medical Centre under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England.

The practice is in purpose built premises and is fully wheelchair accessible. There are seven consulting rooms, a nurse’s room and the healthcare assistant’s room.

Strouts Place Medical Centre is a teaching practice for medical students.

Four GPs work at the practice making up the equivalent of three whole time staff (WTE). There is one part time nurse (0.5 WTE) and one full time healthcare assistant and phlebotomist. The clinical staff are supported by a team of receptionist and administration staff headed up by a full time practice manager.

The surgery opening hours are:

• 9.00am to 6.00pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

• 9.00am to 1.00 pm on Thursday.

The practice offers extended hours at the following times:

• 6pm to 8pm on Tuesday and Wednesday

Patients are directed to an out of hours GP service outside these times.

GP consultation times are:

• 9.00am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 6.00pm on Monday

• 9.00am to 1.00pm, 2.00pm to 6.00pm and 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday.

• 9.00am to 1.00pm on Thursday.

• 9.00am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 6.00pm on Friday.

Strouts Place Medical Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the following regulated activities at Strouts Place Medical Centre, 3 Strouts Place, Pelter Street, London E2 7QU: Diagnostic and screening procedures, Maternity and midwifery services, Surgical procedures, and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

We inspected this practice before on 17 December 2013. We found the practice was meeting the following essential standards: Respecting and involving people who use services, Care and welfare of people who use services, Safeguarding people who use services from abuse, Staffing and Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision. The inspection report can be found at www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-549016815.

Updated 2 March 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Strouts Place Medical Centre on 28 June 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 in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• 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 by GPs 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 said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• 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 proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Should continue to keep under review the decision not to have a defibrillator on site as part of the practice’s arrangements for dealing with medical emergencies.
• Consider further ways of meeting the needs of patients with some long term conditions given the comparatively high exception reporting rates in some clinical domains.
• Consider further ways of improving uptake of cervical, breast and bowel cancer screening tests.
• Continue to monitor and improve patients’ satisfaction scores on consultations with nurses.
• Strengthen arrangements for the identification and support of carers amongst the patient list.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 2 March 2017

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions.

• Nursing staff as well as GPs had key roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority.

• Performance against diabetes indicators was comparable to national averages. Strouts Place Medical Centre was the highest performing practice in its cluster of practices in Tower Hamlets on diabetes in 2015-16.

• Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed.

• All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 2 March 2017

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.

• There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk.

• Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations. Strouts Place Medical Centre was the highest performing practice in Tower Hamlets in 2015-16.

• Uptake of the cervical screening test was comparable to national averages.

• Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

• One of the GPs had completed further training to provide obstetric and gynaecological services for patients at the practice.

• We saw positive examples of joint working with midwives and health visitors.

Updated 2 March 2017

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.

• The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population.

• The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and urgent appointments for those with enhanced needs.

• One of the GPs had a special interest in elderly care medicine and had completed further training the area. They were available to colleagues to discuss any queries or concerns about patients’ care.

• GPs worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care to patients at high risk and with enhanced needs.

Updated 2 March 2017

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students).

• The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care.

• The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group.

Updated 2 March 2017

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

• Forty per cent of patients diagnosed with dementia had their care reviewed in a face to face meeting in the last 12 months, which was comparable to the national average.

• Performance against mental health indicators was comparable to national averages.

• The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of patients experiencing poor mental health.

• A mental health liaison nurse was based at the practice once a week to support patients leaving hospital. Psychologist appointments were also available at the practice.

• The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

• Staff had a good understanding of how to support patients with mental health needs and dementia.

• One of the GPs had a special interest in mental health and was available to colleagues to discuss any queries or concerns about patients’ care.

Updated 2 March 2017

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.

• The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability.

• The practice provided the safe haven service for Tower Hamlets and City & Hackney patients.

• The practice regularly worked with other health care professionals in the case management of vulnerable patients.

• The practice informed vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

• Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.