The Palace Gate Practice

Updated 19 July 2019

Palace Gate Practice is located in the London Borough of Kensington located at;

2A Pennant Mews

Kensington

London

W85JN.

The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver the regulated activities; treatment of disease, disorder or injury, and diagnostic and screening procedures.

The practice staff consist of two female and two male GPs. Two of the GPs work full time hours and the rest work part time. The rest of the practice staff consist of two medical secretaries/ receptionist, one typist, one financial administrator, and one human resources and training manager.

The practice is open Monday to Friday from 08:30hrs to 18:00hrs. The practice also offers 24hour care to patients who are registered as members of the practice. An out of hours service is provided by the practice and they also have an external company that delivers out of hours service. The doctors also attend the Westminster school twice a week to deliver a pupil medical clinic.

Before the inspection we reviewed a range of information. We reviewed information submitted by the service in response to our provider information request and the practice’s previous inspection reports from March 2016. During our visit we talked to people using the service, their relatives, interviewed staff, observed the premises and reviewed documents.

How we inspected this service

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 19 July 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection March 2016, the service was not rated but was meeting the requirements).

The key questions 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 Palace Gate Practice as part of our inspection programme. The Palace Gate Practice is located in the London Borough of Kensington and provides private GP services to around 5000 patients from a purpose-built building. The practice doctors also act as, School Medical Officers and provide General Practitioner consultation and treatment services to boarding pupils of Westminster School. As part of our inspection we visited the school and carried out checks for the facilities where the doctors work from when they are delivering care at the school.

One of the principal GPs/directors is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered people. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Six people provided feedback about the service. All the feedback we received was very positive about the staff and service provided by the practice. The practice also provided a video testimonial from one of the patients using the service. This provided positive feedback about the service provided and the courtesy of staff.

Our key findings were:

• 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.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ 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-centre care.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care