NEMS GP Out of Hours Service

Updated 14 December 2018

NEMS GP Out of Hours Service provides urgent medical care and advice for patients in the areas of Nottingham City and the south of Nottinghamshire County. The service contracts with NHS Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS Nottinghamshire South CCG to provide primary medical services outside of usual working hours (out-of-hours or OOH) when GP practices are closed. The provider is NEMS Community Benefit Services Limited and their administrative base is located at Fanum House, 484 Derby Road, Nottingham ( http://www.nems.org.uk/ ).

Most patients access the out-of-hours service via the NHS 111 telephone service. Patients may be seen by a clinician, receive a telephone consultation or a home visit, depending on their needs. The service does not primarily offer a walk-in service however, if a patient walked in and required to be seen, the service would always see patients to ensure they receive the care and treatment required. Patients can also be referred from the hospital accident and emergency departments.

The out-of-hours service is provided at Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3AJ and provides services on weekday evenings and overnight from 6.30pm to 8am and 24 hours a day at weekends and on bank holidays.

We carried out an unannounced focused inspection of safe and well led at NEMS GP Out of Hours Service on 11 October 2018 due to concerns we had received. We then carried out an announced visit at the administrative headquarters of the provider (NEMS Community Benefit Services Limited) based in Fanum House, Nottingham on 18 October 2018 to review the administrative and management processes in place to deliver a quality service.

Updated 14 December 2018

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection November 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an unannounced focused inspection at NEMS GP Out of Hours Service 11 October 2018. We carried out this inspection in response to concerns, we looked at safe and well led during our inspection. As part of this inspection, we also inspected the provider’s headquarters (NEMS Community Benefit Services Limited) based in Fanum House, Nottingham on 18 October 2018, this visit was announced. The ratings for safe and well led have not changed since our last inspection in November 2015.

At this inspection we found:

• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs. Processes were in place to identify patients that needed more urgent attention.
• The service was aware of some of the challenges to deliver quality care and was taking action to address them.
• This was an unannounced inspection therefore, we were unable to receive feedback from patients during the inspection. However, patient feedback received by the service demonstrated that staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The provider demonstrated effective joint working arrangements with key partners to develop-coordinated care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Develop the staff induction programme to include site specific induction.
• Ensure oversight of all safety systems and processes on the site including oversight of infection control documentation, daily vehicle and medical equipment checks and the processes in place for the security of blank prescriptions.
• Encourage all staff throughout the service to report incidents and significant events when they occur.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice