Archived: Dove River Practice

Updated 10 March 2016

Dove Medical Practice is located in the village of Sudbury which is on the border between Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

The practice provides primary medical services to 8,420 patients under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. The level of deprivation affecting the practice population is below the national average. Income deprivation affecting children and older people is also below the national average.

There are facilities for disabled patients, baby changing facilities and there is car parking.

The clinical team comprises six GP partners, three male and three female, a senior nurse practitioner, practice nurses and health care assistants who work across both sites. The clinical team is supported by a full time practice manager, and a range of reception and administrative staff.

There is a dispensary service with a dispensary manager and dispensing staff and are able to supply medicines to all patients who live more than one mile from their nearest pharmacy. There is also a medicines delivery service available.

The practice opens from 8am to 11.30am Monday to Friday and 3pm to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The practice closes each Thursday afternoon from 11.30 and is closed on Saturday and Sunday. Consultation times are from 8.30am to11am and 3pm to 6pm each day except for Thursday afternoon. Extended hours surgeries are offered on Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm to 8pm.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to its patients. This service is provided by Staffordshire Doctors Urgent Care which is based in Burton on Trent.

Updated 10 March 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dove River Practice on 12 January 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report significant events. Information about safety alerts was reviewed and communicated to staff by the practice manager in a timely fashion.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed through practice meetings and collaborative discussions with the multi-disciplinary team.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. This was kept under review by the practice which used audit as a way of to ensuring that patients received safe and effective care

• All members of the practice team had received an annual appraisal and had undertaken training appropriate to their roles, with any further training needs identified and supported by the practice.

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet people’s needs. For example; the practice met monthly with the community health to discuss and plan care for patients

• Results from a national survey and patients we spoke with told us doctors and nurses at the practice treated them with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available in the reception area and patients told us that they knew how to complain if they needed to.
• Urgent appointments were available on the day they were requested. However, patients said that they sometimes had to wait a long time to see their preferred GP
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.

• There was a clear leadership structure and staff told us they felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from patients, which it acted on. Staff appeared motivated to deliver high standards of care and there was evidence of team working throughout the practice

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 10 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions.

Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority. Longer appointments and home visits were available. Regular blood tests were offered where required and spirometry diagnostics and monitoring was offered.

Nationally reported data showed outcomes for patients with a long term condition were comparable with the national average. For example; 96% of patients with diabetes had a foot examination within the last 12 months compared with the national average which was 83%, and 95% of patients with diabetes had received an influenza immunisation within the last 12 months compared to the national average which was 94%.

Patients with long term conditions had a named GP and named nurse and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, relevant health and care professionals were involved to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care

The practice provided an anti-coagulant service for some of their patients on Warfarin therapy using INR Star process. This meant that patients received an immediate result and their medicine was adjusted on-the-spot in order to ensure that the level of medicine in the blood was in the therapeutic range. 

Updated 10 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.

Immunisation rates were higher than local and national average for all standard childhood immunisations. These were around 98% for five year olds compared with a CCG average of around 93%.

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 with provision of books and toys. We saw good examples of joint working with midwives and health visitors who were located at a nearby practice

The surgery offered contraceptive and family planning advice, with same day appointments for emergency contraception.

Receptionists knew to arrange a same day assessment for children when parents were concerned about their health.

The practice referred children to organisations specialising in child counselling where this was required for older teenagers and adults, this was available at the practice with the in-house counsellor.

Updated 10 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.

Nationally reported data showed 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 services to meet their needs, for example, annual health checks for people aged over 75 years, dementia screening, joint injections, flu vaccinations, palliative care, induction hearing loop. It was responsive to the needs of older people and offered extended consultation times, and home visits for those with enhanced needs.

The practice provided regular ‘ ward rounds’ at local nursing homes, utilising a multidisciplinary team including a dietician, pharmacist and community psychiatric nurse.

They liaised regularly with the community geriatrician, who advised on complex patients and was available as a telephone resource.

The dispensary provided pre-prepared medicines in blister packs for those who needed help with remembering which medicines to take, and there was a delivery service for those who required it.

Updated 10 March 2016

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. For example; extended hours were offered on Wednesday evenings and telephone consultations were available by appointment.

Repeat prescriptions could be ordered using the online ordering service and, on request, prescriptions could be sent to local pharmacists for collection directly from the pharmacy saving a visit during working hours to the surgery.

The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs for this age group including NHS checks, which were advertised in the practice and on the website. They had completed 161 health checks 

Updated 10 March 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

They regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. This included the community mental health and crisis teams and the local MIND services.

The practice employed their own counsellor and liaised regularly with them as well as enabling them to update the patient records directly with outcomes and concerns.

The practice had developed their own tailored review proformas to ensure a holistic approach to mental health and dementia annual reviews and encouraged patients they held on their register to attend annually for a face to face review. If patients did not attend their appointment, the practice wrote to them to re-book their appointment up to three times.

The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

Updated 10 March 2016

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 and had invited these patients to an annual health check during January 2016.

There was a GP lead for patients with learning disabilities who worked with patient’s carer or case worker to assess the level of support required and to review the care plan with the patient to ensure ongoing personalised care.

The practice informed vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse and neglect and 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.