Uni-City Medical Centre

Background to this inspection

Updated 5 December 2017

Dr Lawson and Dr Alalade are also known as the University Practice. The practice is situated in the centre of Portsmouth and provides care and treatment to approximately 18,500 patients. The majority of patients, approximately 13,000, are students at the University of Portsmouth.

The practice has a high percentage of patients in the 15 to 34 age group when compared with the England average. Numbers for the other age groups are significantly below England averages. The practice is situated in one of the fourth most deprived areas in England. The practice population is mainly white British, with approximately 10% of patients who live in the area identifying themselves as Black or Asian in origin. The university has students from all parts of the world who register as patients at the practice.

Dr Lawson and Dr Alalade have two GP partners; in addition there are three part time salaried GPs. There are three male GPs and two female GPs. The practice has three practice nurses, one who works full time and two nurses who work part time hours. The clinical team are supported by reception and administration staff, a practice manager and an operations manager. The practice provides services under a personal medical service contract.

The practice’s usual opening hours are 8.00am until 6.30pm daily (with extended hours being offered between 6.30pm and 8pm on Tuesday evenings); 9am until 11am on Saturdays with a GP and 9am until 1pm on a Saturday with a practice nurse. When the practice is closed, patients are requested to access out of hours GPs via the NHS 111 service.

We inspected the only location:

University Surgery

The Nuffield Centre

St Michael's Road

PO1 2BH

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 5 December 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced focused inspection on 16 February 2017, where the practice was rated as requires improvement overall. Before this the practice had been in special measures following an inspection in May 2016. The practice was taken out of special measures, but there were still areas which needed improvement. These included maintaining accurate and complete records of patient care and treatment; reviewing arrangements for identifying patients who were also carers; reviewing arrangements related to not having a defibrillator on site; and reviewing arrangements for reporting significant events to external bodies.

The full comprehensive report on the February 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr Lawson and Dr Alalade on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 17 October 2017 to confirm that the practice had met the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 16 February 2017. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection on 16 February 2017.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

Improvements had been made and the requirement to maintain an accurate and complete record in respect of each patient including care plans had been met. Care plans were shared with the patient and other relevant health professionals. Also:

The practice had reviewed its risk assessment related to having a defibrillator on site and had purchased one.
The practice was more proactive in identifying carers to provide appropriate support.
The practice was working more closely with the patient participation group and involving them in the running of the practice.
The practice had started to use a reporting system for significant events which enabled them to report to external bodies and there was evidence on acting fully on safety alerts.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to continue to make improvements.

The provider should:

Review arrangements for sharing information about vulnerable patients, particularly those with a mental health condition who moved to another area or who do not attend appointments.
Continue with arrangements to identify patients who are also carers to improve numbers.
Review the process for ensuring that blood tests have been completed and the results have been received, prior to medicines being prescribed.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice