Porters Avenue Doctors Surgery

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Porters Avenue Doctors Surgery on 21 August 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe- Good.

Effective – Good.

Caring - Requires Improvement.

Responsive – Requires Improvement.

Well-led - Good.

Following our previous inspection on 28 March 2018, the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions except caring which was rated requires improvement.

The full report for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Porters Avenue Doctors Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection.

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach which involved a site visit: We looked at the Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led key questions.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A site visit.

Our findings

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 found that:

• Results from the national GP patient survey showed patients level of satisfaction regarding accessing the practice and the way they were treated was significantly lower than local and national averages.
• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
• The GP Patient survey results for the patient's access to the service was below national average.
• Clinical searches found patients receiving high-risk medicines, such as methotrexate,received appropriate monitoring.
• Staff were positive about the working at the practice.
• The practice had implemented a new patient app to improve appointment access.
• Patients were now offered same day appointments, if they coud not be seen on the same day, they would be seen the next day.
• The practice was undertaking it’s own patient survey.
• The system for the management of infection preventionand control was effective.
• The systems for the management of risk in the premises was effective

We found one breach of regulation. The provider must:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to improve the uptake for childhood immunisation and of cervical cancer screening.

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

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care