Background to this inspection
Updated
30 July 2018
South Hylton Surgery is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services for around 4,000 patients. The practice is part of Sunderland clinical commissioning group (CCG) and operates on a General Medical Services (GMS) contract agreement for general practice.
The practice provides services from the following address, which we visited during this inspection:
- 2 Union Street, South Hylton, Sunderland, SR4 0LS
The practice maintains a website: www.southhyltonmedicalcentre.co.uk
The practice is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Family planning
- Maternity and midwifery services
- Surgical procedures
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
The practice is in a purpose-built two-storey building. All patients’ services are provided on the ground floor and consultation rooms are fully accessible There is on-site parking and disabled parking.
Patients can book appointments in person, on-line or by telephone. The service for patients requiring urgent medical attention out of hours is provided by the NHS 111 service and Vocare, which is also known locally as Northern Doctors Urgent Care.
The practice has two GP partners (both male), one salaried GP (female), one practice nurse and one health care assistant. They also employ two assistant practice managers, six staff who undertake administrative or reception roles and one domestic.
Information taken from Public Health England placed the area in which the practice is located in the third most deprived decile. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services. The average male life expectancy is 76 years, which is three years lower than the England average and the average female life expectancy is 80 years, which is three years lower than the England average. 97.5% of the practice population are white, 0.5% are mixed race, 1.7% are Asian, 0.2% are black and 0.1% are from other races.
The proportion of patients with a long-standing health condition is in line with the national average (56% compared to the national average of 54%). The proportion of patients, who are in paid work or full-time employment, or education, is in line with the national average (61% compared to the national average of 62%).
The practice had displayed their CQC ratings from the April 2015 inspection, in the practice reception area and on their website, in line with legal requirements.
Updated
30 July 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating April 2015 – Good)
The key questions at this inspection 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 South Hylton Surgery on 15 June 2018 as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
- The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Patient feedback was consistently positive. All 30 CQC comments cards we received were positive about the practice, this was in line with the results of the National GP Patient Survey. Patients we spoke with were positive about the practice.
- Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
- There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
- At our previous inspection in April 2015, we told the provider that they should make improvements in some areas. We saw at this inspection improvements had been made. The practice had completed a legionella risk assessment, ensured the security of prescription forms and had improved the systems in place for recalling patients experiencing mental health problems for review.
We saw one area of outstanding practice:
- The service understood the needs of different people and groups of people, and delivered care and support in a way that meets these needs and promoted equality. They encouraged patients with learning disabilities and dementia to have care reviews completed in their home environment. This was to reduce stress and anxiety for patients. For 2017/2018, 52% of patients with a learning disability and 59% of patients with dementia had their review completed at home. For the remaining patient’s, reviews had been completed at the practice. This was due to patient choice or because the patient attended the practice for another reason and the review appointment had been booked to coincide with this. This reduced the number of times the patient needed to attend the practice.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Review their process when managing significant events so that they always act in accordance with the Duty of Candour.
- Evaluate and improve the systems in place for exception reporting patients at the practice.
- Act so that all persons employed in the provision of the regulated activity receive the appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal necessary to enable them to carry out the duties. Specifically, complete staff appraisals for those staff who had not been appraised in the last 12 months.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.