Gower Street Practice

Updated 29 October 2018

Gower Street Practice is situated within the NHS Camden Clinical Commissioning Group. The practice holds a General Medical Services contract (a GMS contract is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities).

The practice is located at 20 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6DP and its website can be found at: www.gowerstreetpractice.org.uk.

Gower Street Practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the regulated activities of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury; Diagnostic and screening procedures; Maternity and midwifery services. It has a patient list of approximately 8,400 patients.

The staff team at the practice includes two male part-time GP partners, two female full-time salaried GPs and two female regular part-time locum GPs. Between them the GPs work the equivalent of three full-time GPs. The clinical team is completed by a part-time female practice nurse.

The non-clinical staff consist of a full-time practice manager, a full-time secretary, a full-time reception supervisor and four administrative and reception staff.

The practice is open Monday to Friday: 9.00am – 5.30pm. The practice has retained responsibility for providing an out-of-hours service which it shares with the local out of hours provider. The practice partners are available from time to time to provide an out-of-hours service according to an agreed rota. The practice partners cover the core service hours between 8am and 9am and again between 5.30pm and 6.30pm to provide telephone advice, surgery consultations or home visits as appropriate. Patients may dial the NHS 111 service, which connects the call.

To assist patients in accessing the service appointments can be booked in-person, by phone and via an online booking system. Urgent appointments and home visits are available each day.

Updated 29 October 2018

This practice is rated as good overall. (Previous rating December 2015 – Good)

The key questions at this inspection 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 Gower Street Practice on 28 August 2018, as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The care records we saw showed that information needed to deliver safe care and treatment was available to staff.
• The practice acted on and learned from external safety events as well as patient and medicine safety alerts.
• The practice had created a range of computer reports that it ran on a regular basis to ensure that it was up to date with necessary actions for its patient groups.
• Feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treat people.
• One member of staff’s personnel file did not contain all of the information we would normally expect to find, including evidence of a recent appraisal, and training in infection prevention and control and safeguarding training. Following our inspection, the practice provided us with this evidence.
• The practice understood the needs of its population and tailored services in response to those needs.
• Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of services. They understood the challenges and were addressing them.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review and consider placing a second thermometer in the vaccines fridge to improve the reliability of temperature monitoring.
• Continue with work to review its current patient list to ensure greater accuracy in reporting.
• Review how carers are identified and recorded on the patient record system to ensure information, advice and support is made available to all.
• Continue with work to improve uptake of its cervical screening programme.
• Review and work to increase patient uptake rates for childhood immunisations, and its cervical screening programmes.
• Review and continue to address the concerns raised during the national GP patient survey regarding nurses involving patients in decisions, explaining tests and treatments and treating them with care and concern during consultations.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Updated 29 October 2018

Updated 29 October 2018

Updated 29 October 2018

Updated 29 October 2018

Updated 29 October 2018

Updated 29 October 2018