Gateway Plaza

We found the following areas of good practice:

• Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents. There were clear processes in place for reporting and investigating incidents and staff received feedback at team meetings.
• Safeguarding young people and vulnerable adults took sufficient priority. Staff were knowledgeable and had completed the required level of safeguarding training.
• People’s care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with current evidence based guidance and national standards.
• Staff were supported to deliver effective care and treatment, including through regular supervision.
• There was a programme of learning and training in place for staff to become dual trained in genitourinary medicine and sexual health.
• The service used technology very well, with patients able to book appointments in a variety of ways and be kept informed of clinic updates via Facebook and Twitter.
• Staff were aware of the need to assess Gillick competence and apply Fraser guidelines when obtaining consent with young people.
• Feedback from patients was positive. People were treated with dignity, respect and kindness. Patients felt supported and said staff were non-judgemental.
• Patients were communicated with in a way they could understand and were involved in decisions about their treatment. They were supported emotionally with their treatment.
• Services were planned and delivered in a way that met the needs of the local population, with appointment-only clinics or walk-in and wait clinics that were offered at the main hub and various spoke clinics.
• Services were provided for people in more vulnerable circumstances.
• There were effective governance systems in place to ensure quality and performance was managed.
• Managers were visible and showed good leadership; staff had noticed improvements since a new head of service had been appointed. There was good engagement with all staff and staff felt listened to.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

• The service did not have access to atropine for resuscitation as recommended in national standards.