Poverest Medical Centre

Updated 18 June 2018

The Poverest Medical Centre is located in Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley. The practice serves approximately 9,200 people living in the local area. The local area is diverse in terms of levels of deprivation including relatively affluent and relatively deprived locations. There is also a larger than average traveller community leading to a high turnover of registered patients.

The practice operates from a single site. It is situated in a two-storey building with seven consultation rooms and a minor surgery suite all consulting rooms are accessible on the ground floor.

There are five GP partners and one salaried GP working at the practice; three are male and three are female GPs. There is also a practice manager, three practice nurses and two health care assistants. Three of the GPs carry out minor surgery on site, for example, for joint injections or skin lesions.

The practice offers family planning services, including the fitting and removal of intrauterine devices (IUD). One of the GPs offers a gynaecological services clinic and visiting hospital consultants carry out minor surgery for gynaecological issues on a weekly basis. This gynaecological service is open to all patients in the local area, regardless of whether they are registered with the practice. There are also antenatal and postnatal clinics with a GP on Tuesday afternoons, and antenatal appointments with a midwife on a Thursday afternoon.

The practice offers appointments on the day and patients can book appointments up to four weeks in advance. The practice has appointments from 8am to 6.30pm on Mondays to Fridays.

Patients are directed to call the ‘111’ service for advice and onward referral to other primary care services when the practice is closed.

They are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to carry out the following regulated activities: Surgical procedures; Family planning; Diagnostic and screening procedures; Treatment of disease, disorder or injury; Maternity and midwifery services.

Updated 18 June 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection - 26 March 2015– Rating – Good overall and requires improvement in effective)

The key questions 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 Poverest Medical Centre on 18 April 2018 as part of our planned 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.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• Results from the national GP patient survey showed patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Patients told us that all staff at the practice were supportive and the care they received was excellent. Access to the service was good and patients told us they could book routine and emergency appointments when needed.
• The practice embraced integrated care and had referred 44 elderly patients onto the Integrated Care Network (ICN) programme, which is a scheme organised by Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group CCG that ensures elderly patients’ social, emotional, mental and physical needs are met.
• The practice had a good understanding of its population and tailored its service accordingly.
• We saw many examples of feedback from patients thanking staff for the care and support they received.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The practice should review role specific training for all staff.
• Reviewing the adequacy of the external risk assessments.

Updated 18 June 2018

Updated 18 June 2018

Updated 18 June 2018

Updated 18 June 2018

Updated 18 June 2018

Updated 18 June 2018