Archived: Minster Medical Centre

Updated 27 August 2015

The Minster Medical Centre is a GP practice located in an urban area of the Isle of Sheppey in Kent though it has both urban and rural patients. It provides care for approximately 6000 patients. The practice population is similar to national averages. It has marginally more patients over 65 years than the national average.

It is not an area of high depravation or of income deprivation. The number of people in paid work or full time education is about three quarters of the national average. It has about 50 % more people receiving disability allowance than nationally. The area has more people with a long-standing health condition, with health-related problems in daily life and with a caring responsibility than nationally. It has significantly more nursing home patients than the national average.

There are four GP partners, one female and three male.

The practice has a general medical services (GMS) contract with NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities and an alternative medical provider service (APMS) contract in respect of other services including GP services to Her majesty’s Prisons on the Isle of Sheppey.

Services are delivered from:

Sheppey Community Hospital,

Plover Road,

Minster on Sea,

Minster,

Kent.

ME12 3LT.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. There is information available to patients on how to access out of hours care. Out of hours care is provided by Medway on Call Care (MedOCC).

Updated 27 August 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Minster Medical Centre on 26 March 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, and responsive and well led services. It was also good for providing services for older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of those relating to recruitment checks.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect 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.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a GP or nurse, 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.

There was one area of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should

• Review its auditing activity to help ensure its effectiveness and to more closely reflect the population it served.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 27 August 2015

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. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication 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 27 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances or who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances. Immunisation rates were exceptionally high for all standard childhood immunisations. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. There was evidence of joint working with midwives, health visitors and school nurses.

Updated 27 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older patients, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 27 August 2015

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 some of the services it offered to help ensure these were accessible. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs for this age group.

Updated 27 August 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). 97% of patients experiencing poor mental health had received an annual physical health check and 92% have a comprehensive care plan. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary 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 provided information to patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. It had a system to follow up patients who had attended A&E where they may have been experiencing poor mental health. Staff had received training on how to care for people with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 27 August 2015

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. It had carried out annual health checks for patients with a learning disability and this had been offered to all these patients. It offered longer appointments for patients with a learning disability.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable patients. It had provided information to 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.