Thornley Street Medical Centre

This practice is rated as Good overall.

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 inspection at Thornley Street Medical Centre on 24 October 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 had systems to keep patients safe and safeguarded from the risk of abuse.
• 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.
• The practice had a structured approach for monitoring patients with long term conditions which ensured patients were offered a review of their care and treatment.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use, however they expressed concerns about the time it took to get through to the practice and the waiting time beyond their appointment to be seen at the practice.
• There was evidence of the systems and processes in place for continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• Changes were made in the management structure both locally and at a wider organisation level. These changes had impacted on the recent transition of the practice to The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Governance arrangements were not fully embedded and the support of staff was not fully established.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure that reception staff are aware of how to prioritise patients that may present with severe infection or sepsis.
• Improve the uptake of cervical screening.
• Continue to identify carers and establish what support they need.
• Carry out a risk assessment to assess whether the practice needed to keep in stock a medicine to treat croup in children.
• Collect information in relation to the Accessible Information Standard (a requirement to make sure that patients and their carers can access and understand the information that they are given) at the point of registration and improve staff awareness of this standard.
• Improve communication and information sharing with all staff.
• Ensure staff files include details of staff vaccination and immunisation history.
• Consider developing a documented business plan to support the vision and strategy and achieve objectives.

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.