Victory House

Updated 17 November 2022

Dr Mary Adams provides a private GP practice from Victory House, which is located at The Sidings, Station Road, Whalley, Clitheroe, Lancashire, BB7 9SE. Good access to car parking is available. Dr Mary Adams has provided a private GP service for 25 years.

Dr Adams is the CQC registered provider for the service and she provides a pre-bookable family doctor service to the whole population. One part time personal assistant supports her with administrative and management duties.

The service is registered with CQC to undertake the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures, Treatment of disease, disorder or injury and Maternity and midwifery services. An application to remove the regulated activity Surgical procedures had been submitted to the CQC. The registered provider confirmed no minor surgical procedures were being provided.

Dr Adams leases one consultation room from another service at Victory House as and when required to provide patient consultations. There is a shared waiting area which is managed and maintained by the host service. Both the consultation room and the patient waiting area are on the ground floor and offer level access for people with physical disabilities.

Victory House offers patients appointments Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm, with appointments available in an evening and at weekends if required. The service offers patients 24-hour telephone access and contact telephone numbers for the GP and the personal assistant are available. A patient’s preference for a telephone consultation is respected if clinically appropriate.

The practice website can be found at: http://www.drmaryadams.org/

How we inspected this service

During the inspection we spoke with Dr Adams and her personal assistant; we reviewed a sample of patient records and other documentation and we spoke with five patients after the inspection visit.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 17 November 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

Victory House was inspected previously on 7 December 2017. This inspection was undertaken before ratings for the service and each key question were introduced. However, at that inspection we found the service being delivered was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

Following the inspection on 18 October 2022 the key questions 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 Victory House as part of our inspection programme and to provide the service with a rating. Dr Mary Adams is a single-handed GP who provides an independent GP consulting service to both children and adults.

We spoke with five patients on the telephone and all provided glowing praise for Dr Adams and the service provided by her.

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe.

• There were effective systems in place to protect patients from avoidable harm. Policies and procedures were in place to support the delivery of safe services.

• The service was provided from a location that was leased from another service on an as required basis. This did provide some challenges which Dr Adams was aware of and was implementing actions to mitigate any potential risks to patients.

• Dr Adams was appropriately trained and medicines and equipment were available in the event of a medical emergency.

• There were systems in place for identifying, acting on and learning from incidents, patient safety alerts and complaints.

• Dr Adams had established effective working relationships with health care professionals working in primary and secondary care.

• Patients received timely, effective care and treatment that met their needs. Our review of clinical records found appropriate care and treatment was being provided.

• We saw examples where information was shared with a patient’s NHS GP to support the safe care and treatment and continuity of care.

• Patients were supported to live healthier lives through education and support.

• Governance arrangements and quality improvement activity was established to support service improvements and the delivery of safe and effective care.

• Dr Adams was supported by a personal administrative assistance and evidence was available that demonstrated appropriate training and annual appraisals were undertaken

• Services available and fees were clearly displayed on the provider’s website.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Proceed with the planned removal of carpeting in the consultation room.
• Extend monitoring systems for expiry dates to include spill kits and oxygen tubing.
• Actively encourage and record patient feedback about the quality of care and treatment provided and use this to inform the service’s quality improvement agenda.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services