Archived: Drs Askey and Partners Also known as St John's Medical Centre

Updated 26 October 2016

Drs Askey and Partners also known as St John Medical Centre is located in Walsall, West Midlands situated in a multipurpose modern built NHS building, providing NHS services to the local community. Based on data available from Public Health England, the levels of deprivation (Deprivation covers a broad range of issues and refers to unmet needs caused by a lack of resources of all kinds, not just financial) in the area served by Drs Askey and Partners is comparable to the national average, ranked at six out of 10, with 10 being the least deprived. The practice serves a higher than average patient population aged 65 and over.

The patient list is approximatley 10,350 of various ages registered and cared for at the practice. Services to patients are provided under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). GMS is a contract between general practices and the CCG for delivering primary care services to local communities.

The surgery has expanded its contracted obligations to provide enhanced services to patients. An enhanced service is above the contractual requirement of the practice and is commissioned to improve the range of services available to patients.

The practice is an ‘Any qualified provider’ (AQP) for diabetes, anti-coagulation and minor surgery services. This enabled both patients registered at the practice and patients registered elsewhere to receive these services at the practice.

Parking is available for cyclists and patients who display a disabled blue badge. Entrance doors are accessible to patients using a wheelchair.

The practice staffing comprises of five partners and one salaried GP, three male and three female, four practice nurses, one being an independent prescriber, Two Health Care Assistant (HCA), one locum practice pharmacist, one Practice Manager, one reception manager, two administrators, two secretaries and eight receptionists.

The practice is open between 8.30am and 6pm on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays; 7.15am to 6pm on Tuesdays and 8.30am to 8pm on Wednesdays.

GP consulting hours are from 8.30am to 11am and 3pm to 6pm on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Tuesday consulting times are 7.15am to 11am and 3pm to 6pm; Wednesdays 8.30am to 11am and 3pm to 8pm. The practice offers appointments with a duty doctor and a second doctor, for acute and urgent conditions, which are released on the day. Extended consulting hours are offered on Tuesdays from 7.15am and GPs offers an 8pm appointment on Wednesdays.

The practice has opted out of providing cover to patients in their out of hours period. During this time services are provided by NHS 111. When the surgery is closed during normal opening hours or between 8am to 8.30am and  6am – 6.30pm services is provided by WALDOC.

Updated 26 October 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Drs Askey and Partners on 13 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to require improvement for providing safe services. We found the practice to be rated good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise safety concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Risks to patients were assessed and managed, with the exception of the management of prescriptions taken for home visits and risks associated with staff who do not have a disclosure and barring service (DBS) check in place. 
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had 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.
• 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.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on

We saw an area of outstanding practice:

• A GP at the practice had a local and national lead role in diabetes care. There was evidence that their leadership had a positive impact on the management, treatment and outcomes for diabetes across the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and this was improving outcomes for patients. A CCG is an NHS organisation that brings together local GPs and experienced health professionals to take on commissioning responsibilities for local health services.

The areas where the provider must make improvement are:

• Operate effective recruitment procedures and ensure that the information required under current legislation is available in respect of all staff employed to work at the practice. This must include Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for clinical staff. Undertake risk assessments when appointing staff with a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check from a previous employer and non clinical staff who do not have a DBS check in place which considers risk such as if the staff member is left unattended with patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Members of staff who undertake a chaperone role should develop the competencies required for the role.
• Ensure a clear audit trail is kept for paper prescriptions taken for home visits
• Consider how they effectively monitor and record staff training and recruitment information so that information is easily accessible and can be acted on.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 1 April 2016

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

• Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority.
• The practice was proactive in the management of patients with diabetes.
• Data showed that the practice was in line or above national averages for indicators relating to diabetes.
• Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed.
• Patients with long term conditions had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medicines needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 1 April 2016

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, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. Immunisation rates were in line or above CCG averages.
• The practice provided recent data which showed that the practice’s uptake for cervical screening was currently 90% which was higher than the national average of 81.8%.
• Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.
• There were joint working with midwives and health visitors and systems in place to share information.

Updated 1 April 2016

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 and provided a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care
• It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and urgent appointments for those with enhanced needs.
• Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people

Updated 1 April 2016

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.
• The practice provided smoking cessation advice, cervical screening and NHS health checks for people aged 40 to 74 years.
• There were extended opening hours on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evening which would benefit working patients.
• The practice had implemented the electronic prescription service with local community pharmacists which would benefit patients unable to visit the practice during the main part of the day. For example, patients who worked during these hours.

Updated 1 April 2016

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

• 91.5 % of people diagnosed with dementia had had their care reviewed in a face to face meeting in the last 12 months.
• The practice regularly worked with multidisciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia.
• It carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia.
• The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.
• It had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency where they may have been experiencing poor mental health.
• Staff had a good understanding of how to support people with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 1 April 2016

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 and poor mental health.
• It offered longer appointments for people with a learning disability.
• The practice regularly worked with multidisciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people.
• It had told 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.