High Road Surgery

Background to this inspection

Updated 31 August 2017

High Road Surgery is located in East London in a terraced house which has good transport links. The practice is a part of Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

There are approximately 1,900 patients registered with the practice 61% of whom have a long standing health condition, which is higher than the CCG average of 47% and the national average of 53%.

The practice has two male GP partners who carry out a total of nine sessions per week and a part time practice nurse who works five and a half hours per week. The practice also has a practice manager, a secretary and three reception staff members.

The practice operates under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract ( a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the most common form of GP contract).

The practice is open Monday to Friday between 9am to 6:30pm except for Thursdays when it closes at 2pm. Phone lines are answered from 9am and appointment times are from 9:30am to 11:30am every morning and 5pm to 6:30pm daily. Extended hours appointments are offered on a Monday between 6:30pm and 7:30pm and the locally agreed out of hours provider covers calls made to the practice when it is closed.

High Road Surgery operates regulated activities from one location and is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 31 August 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the High Road Surgery on 20 October 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report published in March 2017 can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for High Road Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 1 August 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 20 October 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:

There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
The practice had a comprehensive compliment of policies and procedures that were practice specific and version controlled.
Outcomes from the Quality and Outcomes Framework was in line with local and national averages.
The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety, including the purchase of a defibrillator, a fire risk assessment and regular alarm testing and fire drill as well as an infection control audit and a legionella assessment.
All staff members had completed training relevant to their role including safeguarding and information governance.
The practice had identified 35 patients as carers (1% of registered patients).
The practice had established a patient participation group.
There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients.
The practice had a hearing loop installed in the patient waiting area.

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

In addition the provider should:

Continue to work to improve the uptake of patient screening in cervical cytology and breast and bowel screening.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice