The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

School Lane Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

The Surgery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2AG (01842) 753115

Provided and run by:
School Lane Surgery

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

The practice is situated within the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 11,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices in the Breckland Alliance primary care network. Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fifth lowest decile (5 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. There is a team of 3 GP partners 4 salaried GPs and 2 physician associates at the practice. There are 5 nurses, 1 trainee nurse assistant, 3 healthcare assistants, 1 advanced care practitioner, 1 phlebotomist, and 2 care coordinators. The provider also had support from a pharmacist, 2 mental health workers, 1 mind recovery worker, 2 pharmacists, 2 first-contact physiotherapists, and midwives and a health visiting team. The practice manager provides managerial oversight. The practice was open between 8 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday. Extended access was available Monday to Friday 6.30 pm to 8 pm and Saturday 9 am to 5 pm. The practice offered a range of appointment types including book-on-the-day, telephone consultations, in-person, and advanced appointments. Extended access was provided locally by the Breckland Alliance primary care network, where late evening and weekend appointments were available. The practice provided homeless patients support with donating food, referral to the local homeless charity, and signposted to the nearest shower facilities. The provider worked with Norfolk vulnerable adults service to support patients and organise social prescribing plans to homeless patients. Staff at the practice were given long service awards and pastoral support.

05/03/2019

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as Good overall. At the previous inspection in February 2015 the practice were rated as good overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at School Lane Surgery on 5 March 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We concluded that:

  • The practice’s performance on Quality Outcomes Framework indicators was generally in line with, or above, CCG and England averages.
  • The practice’s performance for cancer screening indicators was lower than CCG and England averages.
  • Patients told us they were pleased with the care and treatment provided at the practice and were universal in their praise for the caring nature demonstrated by staff.
  • We saw evidence that where things had gone wrong, the practice had taken action in a prompt manner and could evidence learning had been shared amongst staff.
  • We found members of staff we spoke with had a clear knowledge of safeguarding processes at the practice.
  • The practice employed a number of clinical staff including; a physician associate, a physiotherapist, an emergency care practitioner and a care coordinator.
  • Members of staff we spoke with were positive about working at the practice, the morale amongst staff and the leadership team.
  • We found the practice had a comprehensive induction process for new members of staff.
  • The practice demonstrated a strong leadership team with clear roles, responsibilities, lead areas and values.
  • The practice worked to achieve a number of additional accreditations, innovations, research and continuous learning.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Review and improve the practice’s uptake of cancer screening programmes.
  • Review and improve the number of learning disability health checks provided.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BS BM BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

11 November 2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected this practice on 11 November 2014 as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme.

The provider, Dr Hadley-Brown and partners, provides services from two locations; School Lane Surgery in School Lane, Thetford and Thetford Community Living Centre which is also in Thetford. Thetford Community Living Centre was not inspected as part of this inspection.

The overall rating for this practice is good. We found the practice was good in the safe, effective caring, responsive and well-led responsive domains. We found the practice provided good care to older patients, patients with long term conditions, patients in vulnerable circumstances, families, children and young patients, working age patients and patients experiencing poor mental health.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice has a system for reviewing and responding to safety alerts and significant events.
  • Staff take account of changes in national guidance when planning patient care.
  • Staff have access to training to update their skills.
  • The practice has developed a template to assist staff in planning for and providing care to patients with dementia, which the local Clinical Care Commissioning Group has requested be shared with other practices in the area.
  • The practice had a robust governance structure in place with designated lead and administrative staff for a range of areas, alongside a range of different meetings for staff.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

  • The practice has worked to support those patients who first language is not English through the provision of an interpreter three days a week, and a good awareness of the health needs of patients from the migrant community.
  • The practice developed a template for the review of patients with dementia which the Clinical Commissioning Group requested be shared with other practices in the area.

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

The provider should:

  • The provider should take action to improve the take up of annual health checks by patients who have a learning disability.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

11 November 2014

During an inspection of this service