Archived: Park View Medical Centre

Updated 15 October 2015

Park View Medical Centre is based in Tuebrook a residential area within Liverpool. There were 3329 patients on the practice list at the time of our inspection. The provider is SSP Health Limited.

The percentage of patients with health-related problems in daily life for this practice was 70.5% compared to the practice average across England of 48.8%. The practice was in an area that had identified high levels of deprivation.

The practice has one male salaried GP, a practice nurse, a recently appointed practice manager and reception and administration staff. The practice also has two locum GPs who had committed to the provider to long term placements at this practice.

The practice is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6.30pm. Patients requiring a GP appointment outside of normal opening hours are advised to contact an external out of hours service provider called UC24.

The practice has an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contract. In addition the practice carried out a variety of enhanced services such as: shingles vaccinations and avoiding unplanned admissions to hospital.

Updated 15 October 2015

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Park View Medical Centre on the 10 August 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding.
• The practice was clean and tidy.
• The practice used their own pharmacy advisor to ensure the practice was prescribing in line with current guidelines. They carried our regular monitoring and audits of high risk medications.
• The practice nurse proactively sought to educate their patients to improve their lifestyles by having regular invites to patients for health assessments providing advice for smoking, diet and exercise.
• Patients spoke highly about the practice and the whole staff team. They said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• The practice does not currently have a patient participation group (PPG) but they sought to attract members and aim to set up a PPG for the practice.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• A Local Medical Director had been recently appointed to oversee the clinical governance of the practice and was proactively encouraging the use of clinical audits to ensure patients received treatment in line with best practice standards.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. The practice held information about the prevalence of specific long term conditions within its patient population such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardio vascular disease and hypertension. This information was reflected in the services provided, for example, reviews of conditions and treatment and screening programmes. The practice continuously contacted these patients to attend annual reviews to check that their health and medication needs were being met. The practice had adopted a holistic approach to patient care rather than making separate appointments for each medical condition. The practice offered appointments with the practice nurse for up to 60 minutes to ensure patients with multiple needs were seen.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. Staff were knowledgeable about child protection and a GP took the lead for safeguarding. Staff put alerts onto a patient’s electronic record when safeguarding concerns were raised. Regular liaison took place with the health visitor to discuss any children who were identified as being at risk of abuse. The practice had a good uptake rate for child immunisations. The practice had developed an ‘Access for Children’ policy to ensure that all children under five could be seen on the same day if required.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. The practice was knowledgeable about the number and health needs of older patients using the service. The practice had identified patients at risk of unplanned hospital admissions and had developed a care plan to review them on a regular basis. The practice staff met with the district nursing team on a regular basis (for Gold standard meetings.This is a systematic evidence based approach to improving the support and palliative care of patients nearing the end of their life.) The practice carried out home visits and also visited care homes in the area.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of this group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. For example the practice offered telephone consultations instead of patients having to attend the practice. The practice offered online prescription ordering and online appointment services. Health checks were offered to patients who were over 40 years of age to promote patient well-being and prevent any health concerns.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice referred patients to the appropriate services. The practice maintained a register of patients with mental health problems in order to regularly review their needs or care plans. The practice staff liaised with other healthcare professionals to help engage these patients to ensure they attended reviews. Mental Capacity Act training was available to staff and the provider had also disseminated information regarding Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

Updated 15 October 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice was aware of patients in vulnerable circumstances and ensured they had appropriate access to health care to meet their needs. For example, a register was maintained of patients with a learning disability and annual health care reviews were provided to these patients. All staff were trained and knowledgeable about safeguarding vulnerable patients and had access to the practice’s policy and procedures and had received guidance in this.