Archived: The Park Medical Centre

Updated 14 May 2015

The Park Medical Centre provides primary medical services to people living in St Austell and the surrounding areas. The practice also had a branch at Foxhole Medical Centre, Carpalla Road, Foxhole, St. Austell with approximately 1,500 patients registered at the practice. We did not visit the branch as part of our inspection.

The Park Surgery is part of the consortium known as the St Austell Healthcare Group Ltd and they have in place an agreement to help manage and lead Polkyth Surgery for which they have overall responsibility for managing.

This was a comprehensive inspection.

At the time of our inspection there were approximately 7,500 patients registered at the service. The practice had a team of five GP partners, two part time female and three full time male GPs. The partners held managerial and financial responsibility for running the business. There was a community matron, one nurse prescriber, two nurses, one healthcare assistant and one phlebotomist (staff member who takes blood) at the practice. In addition there was a practice manager, and additional administrative and reception staff.

Patients using the practice have access to community staff including district nurses, community psychiatric nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, mental health staff, counsellors and midwives.

The practice is open between 8.30am and 6.00pm throughout the day Monday to Friday. The practice does not close at lunchtime but telephone calls are directed to an answer machine between 1.00pm – 2.00pm each day. The practice has extended hours on a Saturday morning between 8:30am and 12 noon. A practice nurse also has a clinic one Saturday morning a month.

Patients can book appointments between these times to see a GP or other healthcare professional either by telephone or in person. A number of online appointments are also available for patients to book themselves.

Outside of these hours patients dial the practice telephone number and obtain instruction on how to contact the GP on call for emergencies. Advice can also be obtained by another health care provider by patients dialling the national 111 service.

Updated 14 May 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Park Surgery on 7 January 2015.

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 who were vulnerable and those experiencing poor mental health and those with dementia.

We rated this practice as Good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from incidents were taken advantage of.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.

• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the Patient Participation Group.

• Patients had a variety of ways to make appointments and found the practice to be flexible in meeting their needs. We were told patients could always get an appointment.

• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Patients told us they always found the practice to be clean and safe.

• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its first priority and high standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 14 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for providing care to people with long term conditions. The practice managed the care and treatment for patients with long term conditions in line with best practice and national guidance. Health promotion and health checks were offered in line with national guidelines for specific conditions such as diabetes and asthma. Longer appointments were available for patients if required, such as those with long term conditions. The practice had a carers' register and all carers were offered an appointment for a carers' check with nursing staff. The practice worked with the community matron to keep patients independent within their own homes.

Updated 14 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for families, children and young people. Staff worked well with the midwife to provide prenatal and postnatal care. Postnatal health checks were provided by a GP. The practice provided baby and child immunisation programmes to ensure babies and children could access a full range of vaccinations and health screening. The practice is a member of the EEFO system for young people. Information relevant to young patients was displayed and health checks and advice on sexual health for men, women and young people included a full range of contraception services and sexual health screening including chlamydia testing and cervical screening. The GPs training in safeguarding children from abuse was at the required level.

Updated 14 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for providing care to older people. All patients over 75 years had a named GP. Health checks and promotion were offered to this group of patients. The practice worked with the community matron to keep patients independent within their own homes. There were safeguards in place to identify adults in vulnerable circumstances. The practice worked well with external professionals in delivering care to older patients, including end of life care. Pneumococcal vaccination and shingles vaccinations were provided at the practice for older people on set days as well as during routine appointments. Staff recognised that some patients required additional help when being referred to other agencies and assisted them with this.

Updated 14 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for providing care to working age people. The practice provided appointments on the same day. Emergency appointments were available. The practice operated extended opening hours one evening a week. Smoking cessation appointments were available. The practice website invited all patients aged between 40 years to 75 years to arrange to have a health check with a nurse if they wanted. A cervical screening service was available.

Updated 14 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for people experiencing poor mental health, including people with dementia. The practice is aware of their ageing population group. Staff were aware of the safeguarding principles and GPs and nurses had access to safeguarding policies. All staff had received training in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and were aware of the principles and used them when gaining consent. There was signposting and information available to patients. The practice referred patients who needed mental health services and community psychiatric nurses visited the practice. Some support services were provided at the practice, such as counselling. Patients suffering poor mental health were offered annual health checks as recommended by national guidelines.

Updated 14 May 2015

The practice is rated as good for people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice had a vulnerable patient register to identify these patients. Vulnerable patients were reviewed at team meetings. Referral to a counselling service was available. The practice did not provide primary care services for patients who are homeless as none are known, however, staff said they would not turn away a patient if they needed primary care and could not access it. Patients with interpretation requirements were known to the practice and staff knew how to access these services. Patients with learning disabilities were offered a health check every year during which their long term care plans were discussed with the patient and their carer if appropriate. Reception staff were able to identify vulnerable patients and offer longer appointment times where needed.