King Edward Street Medical Practice - Care Quality Commission

Background to this inspection

Updated 14 August 2017

King Edward Street Medical Practice is located in a converted Victorian building. There were consultation rooms on two floors and a stair lift to support patients with limited mobility.

The practice had considered the demands on its premises and the need to invest in improvements. They were currently in discussion with their landlord regarding a potential move to other premises located nearby.

The practice is contracted with NHS England to provide a General Medical Services (GMS) to the patients registered with the practice. The practice serves 5,056 patients from Oxford with a large proportion of these being students studying at Oxford colleges. The practice demographics show that the population has a much higher prevalence of patients between 15 and 30 years old compared to the national average and a significantly lower prevalence of children and patients over 40. The student population included patients from abroad for some of whom English was not their first language. National data suggested there was minimal deprivation across the local population.

There are two female partners and three salaried GPs working at the practice; one male and two female. There are two nurses. A number of administrative staff and a practice manager supported the clinical team.

There are 1.85 whole time equivalent (WTE) GPs and 0.8 WTE nurses. King Edward Street Medical Practice is open between 8.00am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. There are extended hours appointments available two mornings a week from 7am.

Out of hours GP services were available when the practice was closed by phoning NHS 111 and this was advertised on the practice website.

The practice provides placements for medical students.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 14 August 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at King Edward Street Medical Practice on 14 November 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report on the November 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for King Edward Street Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 13 July 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 14 November 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

The practice had undertaken a fire risk assessment and a disability access audit which identified areas for improvement which the practice had begun to implement.
The practice had updated their vaccines protocol to ensure the cold chain was maintained in line with best practice.
The practice had undertaken a medicines review audit to improve the monitoring of patient care.
All patients with a learning disability had been invited for an annual health check.
An audit had been undertaken to review the use of the consent policy and showed consent had been obtained and documented where appropriate.
The practice had purchased a hearing loop to ensure patients who used hearing aids could access services.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider should make improvements.

The provider should:

Ensure the practice maintains oversight of cancer screening figures in order to monitor and improve patient outcomes.

At our previous inspection on November 2016, we identified that the practice should identify a means of improving breast cancer screening. At this inspection we found that the practice had taken steps to try and improve uptake of breast cancer screening and while data showed an increase in uptake of this service, the practice did not have oversight of this. Consequently, the practice should maintain oversight of cancer screening figures in order to monitor and improve patient outcomes.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice