Sandy Lane Surgery

Updated 23 July 2015

Sandy Lane Surgery is a GP practice in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The historical roots of the practice date back to at least 1930. The practice provides services to patients of all age groups from leased premises.

Data published in 2014 from Public Health England detailed that deprivation is 62% higher in the practice area than the national average. Rates of long-term conditions, smoking and substance misuse are higher than the national average. These factors can increase the demand on GP practices.

The practice staffing consists of four GPs (three male, one female) who provide a whole time equivalent staffing cover of 2.8 GPs. Three female practice nurses have an active role in providing care and treatment to patients. The practice manager leads a team of eight administrative and reception staff. A counsellor, to provide onsite support for patients experiencing poor mental health is directly employed by the practice for three sessions on a weekly basis.

There are currently around 6,000 patients registered at the practice. The practice holds a Personal Medical Services contract with NHS England. It has extended its contractual obligations to provide a number of enhanced services which include extended hours, annual health checks for patients with learning disabilities, minor surgery and avoiding unplanned admissions.

The practice is open between 8am and 6:30pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours surgeries are offered on one Saturday each month from 8:30am to 12pm.

The practice has opted out of providing services to patients out of normal working hours. These services are provided by Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services Ltd, patients are directed to call 111 to access this service.

Updated 23 July 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sandy Lane Surgery on 23 March 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was also good for providing services for older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including those with dementia).

Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.

• Patients told us that the continuity of GPs was a good feature of the practice, although some told us that appointment times could overrun.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of those relating to the practice building.

There were some areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:

• Consider formalising working arrangements with relevant professionals to discuss issues related to safeguarding children and young people.

• Review the availability of suitably trained and vetted staff to provide chaperone duties to ensure a chaperone is available at all times.

• Improve record keeping of risk assessments and the actions taken in response to identified risks, to promote good governance.

• Review the emergency medicines for the treatment of seizures to ensure that they are age appropriate.

• Consider increased promotion of measures available to improve the health and wellbeing of patients. For example, the provision of flu vaccines in the ‘at risk’ groups and nationally available cancer screening programmes.

Investigate and implement measures to improve the time keeping of appointments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. The practice nurses had a lead role in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There was a non-formal system in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk. A GP had extended training in women’s health. Immunisation rates were in line or higher than the local average for all standard childhood immunisations. Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals, and we saw evidence to confirm this. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services. For example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs. All patients over the age of 75 had a named GP.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). Seventy-five per cent of patients on the practice register dementia had received an annual physical health check. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people who experienced poor mental health, including those with dementia. It carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia.

The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations and had employed an in house counsellor to provide support to patients. It had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency (A&E) where they may have been experiencing poor mental health. Staff had received training on how to care for people with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable patients. It had told vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out-of-hours.