The Waterfront Surgery

Updated 24 December 2018

Waterfront Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a partnership provider and holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England. A GMS contract is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the commonest form of GP contract. The practice is part of the NHS Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). In addition to the core contract, the practice provides a number of enhanced services to include childhood vaccination and immunisation schemes and minor surgery.

The practice is located in a purpose-built health and social care centre and shares the building with other NHS Services at Brierley Hill Health and Social Care Centre. The practice has a population of approximately 8,208 patients and is within the third most deprived decile when compared with both local and national statistics. The practice has slightly more patients aged between 20 and 34 than the England average. This could increase the demand for more flexible appointment times. The practice had a higher percentage of patients with a long-term conditions (LTC) than the local and England average. The percentage of unemployed patients that used the practice was double that of CCG and England averages. These factors could increase demand for health services and impact on the practice.

The practice has opted out of out of hours care provision. Out of hours care is provided by Malling Health (provided within Russell’s Hall hospital). Patients can access this service by dialling NHS 111 or by attending the walk-in service at Russell’s Hall Hospital.

Information about opening times and the practice team can be found at:

Updated 24 December 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall (Previous rating November 2017 – Requires Improvement). A breach of legal requirement was found and a requirement notice was served in relation to good governance. The full comprehensive report on the November 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Waterfront Surgery on our website at .

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 The Waterfront Surgery on 19 November 2018. This was to follow up on breaches of regulations and confirm the practice had met the legal requirement in relation to the breach in regulation that we had previously identified.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had made improvements since the previous CQC inspection and the breach in regulation had been addressed. However, we identified further improvement was required in some areas.
• 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.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• The practice actively worked with the patient participation group (PPG) to meet the needs of their patients.
• The management team had adopted a cohesive approach and had implemented a business plan to address future challenges.
• 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 arrangements to manage uncollected prescriptions.
• Further improve the management of patients on high risk medicines to follow best practice guidelines.
• Implement an action plan to improve the uptake rates for cancer screening.
• Formalise the clinical supervision provided to the nursing team.
• Refresh staff training for the information governance arrangements regarding use of smartcards.
• Continue to explore ways to improve patient satisfaction scores.

Updated 24 December 2018

Updated 24 December 2018

Updated 24 December 2018

Updated 24 December 2018

Updated 24 December 2018

Updated 24 December 2018