Background to this inspection
Updated
20 July 2018
Clerkenwell Medical Practice is one of the practices within the NHS Islington Clinical Commissioning Group. It is situated on the border of Islington and the City of London. It provides GP primary care services to approximately 12500 people living primarily in the Islington area but also from the areas of Camden and Hackney. The patient population group is primarily a young group of people between the ages of twenty and forty. The practice population has a deprivation score of 4 (1 being most deprived and 10 least deprived), and around 35% of the patients are from a Black and Minority Ethnic group (BME).
The practice is a training practice and is staffed by five GP partners, four salaried GP’s, two GP trainees, three nurses, one trainee nurse, one Healthcare Assistant, a practice manager, a reception supervisor and seven administrators. There is a mix between male and female clinicians working at the practice.
The practice is located within a Grade I listed building, which has been purpose built to provide medical care to the local community.
Services are provided from a single location and it is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of; diagnostic and screening procedures; treatment of disease, disorder and injury; surgical procedures; family planning and maternity; and midwifery services.
The Telephone is answered every weekday from 8.00am -6.30pm.
The practice is open Monday to Friday:
- Monday 8.30am – 6.30pm
- Tuesday 8.30am – 6.30pm
- Wednesday 8.30am – 5.00pm
- Thursday 8.30am – 6.30pm
- Friday 8.30am – 6.30pm
An out of hour’s service provided by a local deputising service covers the practice when it is
closed. If patients call the practice when it is closed, they are automatically connected to the out of hours service. Information on the out-of-hours service is provided to patients on the practice website as well as through posters and leaflets available at the practice.
Updated
20 July 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous report rating 05/2016 – Good)
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
This service was previously inspected in December 2015 and given a rating of good for the key questions of safe, effective, caring, and well led care and a rating of outstanding for responsive. The overall rating was good.
We carried out an announced comprehensive re-inspection at Clerkenwell Medical Practice on 17 May 2018, as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
- The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- The service responded to patient needs and specifically tailored and focused the way it provided care according to those needs. Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
- There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Review the systems around the calibration of clinical equipment and the testing of electronic equipment (Portable Appliance Testing) to ensure that equipment is safe to use.
- The practice should review how information is provided to patients who do not speak English as a first language, for instance, information about chaperoning services and health screening programmes.
- Continue to review processes in place to further increase the uptake of cervical screening and childhood immunisations.
- Continue to review high exception reporting with a view to ensuring that it remains appropriate and in line with local and national averages.
- Review how patients with learning difficulties are supported.
- Review and improve how patients with caring responsibilities are identified and recorded on the clinical system to ensure that information, advice and support is made available to them.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.