Leyton Healthcare

Background to this inspection

Updated 31 August 2017

Leyton Healthcare is located in a purpose built building with one other practice and a host of community services such as phlebotomy within a residential area in East London. The practice is a part of the Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group.

There are approximately 13,700 patients registered with the practice, there was a higher proportion of patients aged between 25 and 39 years than the national average and 4.3% of patients had a status of being unemployed, which was lower than the local average of 7%.

The practice has one male and one female GP partner and seven salaried GPs who carry out a total of 49.5 sessions per week, which equated to 82 appointments per 1000 patients a week. The practice has three practice nurses who carry out a total of 20 sessions per week and one health care assistant. The practice also had a practice manager, an assistant practice manager and 13 reception/administration staff members.

The practice is a teaching and training practice for GPs and nurses.

The practice operates under a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract (a locally agreed alternative to the standard GMS contract used when services are agreed locally with a practice which may include additional services beyond the standard contract).

The practice is open Monday to Friday between 8am to 8pm except for Thursdays when it closed at 7pm. Phone lines are answered from 8am and appointment times are as follows:

Monday 8am to 12:20pm and 2:30pm to 7:40pm
Tuesday 8am to 12:20pm and 1:30pm to 7:40pm
Wednesday 8am to 12:20pm and 2:30pm to 7:40pm
Thursday 8am to 1:20pm and 2pm to 5:40pm
Friday 8am to 12:50pm and 2pm to 6:40pm

The locally agreed out of hours provider covers calls made to the practice whilst the practice is closed, including directing patients to services such as 111.

Leyton Healthcare operates regulated activities from one location and is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide treatment of disease, disorder or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and surgical procedures.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 31 August 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Leyton Healthcare on 15 December 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good, with a rating of requires improvement for providing safe services. The full comprehensive report published in February 2017 can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Leyton Healthcare on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced comprehensive inspection on 8 August 2017, carried out to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 15 December 2016. There were breaches in staff training, medicines management and emergency procedures. There were also concerns with the identification of patient carers, the management of vaccines, the storage of blank prescription pads, procedures to deal with test results and the uptake of childhood immunisations.

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 a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety, including a fire risk assessment and regular alarm testing and fire drills.
All staff members had completed training relevant to their role including, including fire safety awareness and infection prevention and control.
The practice had increased its number of carers from 43 at our last inspection to 57 (less than 1%), and were proactively working on increasing this further.
The practice had good arrangements to deal with medical emergencies, including on site emergency equipment such as a defibrillator and oxygen cylinder that was checked weekly to ensure it was in good working order.
Patient Group Directions (PGD) had been adopted by the practice to allow nurses to administer medicines in line with legislation.
Blank prescription pads were securely stored in a locked cabinet and there was a system for monitoring there use.
Vaccines were stored in two fridges to ensure adequate air circulation and fridge temperatures were monitored twice daily.
There was a policy and failsafe to manage incoming test results.
We were provided with evidence that childhood immunisation rates were comparable with national averages.
The practice was actively promoting the uptake of cancer screening.

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However, there were also areas of practice where the provider could make improvements.

Importantly the provider should:

Continue to work to increase the uptake of cancer screening.
Continue to work to increase the number of patient carers to ensure that adequate information and support is provided to them.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice