Archived: Primary Care Hub Also known as (Rainham Improved Access Hub)

Updated 6 November 2019

The service is provided by Medway Practices Alliance Limited. Medway Practices Alliance Limited (MPA) is an independent company which holds a contract with the NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to provide improved access GP services to the patients of the 47 GP practices in the NHS Medway CCG area. The service started in October 2018 and is available to a population of approximately 300,000 patients. Appointments must be booked through the patients’ own GP practice. The service provides a wide range of GP services for both children and adults. However, the GP practices are made aware of which issues or conditions are not ideally suited to be managed in a hub setting. For example, immunisation services are not provided.

MPA run the service from a head office in Lordswood (which is not a registered location) and provide the improved access services from three hubs at Rainham, Rochester and Lordswood (not the same building as the head office). Each of the three hubs are registered as separate locations and are registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

This service is run from:

Rainham Healthy Living Centre,

103-107 High Street

Gillingham

ME8 8AA.

The hubs at Rochester and Lordswood were visited during this inspection but are the subject of separate reports.

Opening times at Primary Care Hub (Rainham Improved Access Hub) are:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday 1pm to 8pm.

The service website address is: www.medwaypracticesalliance.co.uk

How we inspected this service

Prior to the inspection we contacted the commissioners of the service, NHS Medway CCG about the service. We also gathered and reviewed information and statutory notifications that CQC hold about the service, and reviewed information that the providers sent to CQC.

During the inspection we talked to people using the service, their relatives / friends, interviewed staff, made observations and reviewed documents.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 6 November 2019

This service is rated as Good.

This was the first time that this service had been inspected and rated.

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 Primary Care Hub (Rainham Improved Access Hub) as part of our inspection programme.

The service which is run by Medway Practices Alliance (MPA), provides improved access GP services to patients who are registered with GP practices within the NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area. The improved access service gives patients the choice of accessing GP services at a place that is not their own GP practice and at times when their own GP may or may not be open.

Twenty people provided feedback about the service. Nineteen were positive about the service and one was negative. Themes from these comments were that staff were professional, kind, caring and helpful and that the service was impressive, efficient, prompt and thorough. The negative comment related to the location of the hub.

Our key findings were:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service 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 people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Complete the planned team training on the identification and management of patients with severe infections, for example sepsis.

• Record the serial numbers of blank prescription forms returned to the safe at the end of the day as well as those distributed to the printers in the morning.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care