Archived: The Practice Beacon

The Practice Beacon is a GP surgery providing weekday primary care services to patients in West London. It provides primary care services from its site in Ladbroke Grove.

The surgery had approximately 1,800 registered patients at the time of our inspection. The surgery was located at street level and is accessible to people who require wheelchair access. The Practice Beacon is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures, Maternity and midwifery services, Surgical procedures, and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The Practice Beacon staff team is made up of two GPs, a practice nurse, healthcare assistant, a practice manager and two reception staff. In addition to GP appointments, clinics are led by the practice nurse for services including wound care, chronic disease management, child immunisations and cervical smears. Clinics led by the healthcare assistant include new patient health checks and blood pressure monitoring.

All the patients we spoke with were complimentary about the service they had received. The results of the most recent patient survey showed that patients were satisfied with the care and treatment they received. However we found that the practice did not have an active patient participation group. The practice took action in response to improvements suggested by patients.

The provider responded promptly and effectively to incidents and complaints, made improvements and learned from these events. 

The leadership team was visible and staff and patients found them approachable and supportive.

We found good examples of how The Practice Beacon was meeting the needs of each of the population groups we report on. Older people and people who were physically frail received additional support through on-going reviews and, if required, had home visits. People with long term conditions were also encouraged to have additional monitoring and reviews, and the practice had good working relationships with other providers such as hospitals and community health teams to ensure people received ongoing care. The practice carried post natal checks for new mothers and child immunisations.

Particular good practice we found during this inspection was that the practice was implementing a new appointments system in July 2014, partly in response to patient feedback that would offer greater accessibility and flexibility to patients by allowing them to book appointments and request repeat prescriptions online. The new system will also have text enablement to confirm and remind patients about their appointments.

There were also a number of areas we found that the practice could make improvements in. The practice could provide clearer information about the opening hours and appointment hours on their website and within the practice, so that people had a clear understanding of the accessibility of the practice. Staff should be clear on circumstances when children may be seen without being accompanied by a parent and / or without parental consent. Staff should also have a better understanding in the assessment of mental capacity. The practice could ensure annual staff appraisals are completed for the 2013 / 14 year, and new staff objectives are set for the current year 2014 / 15. The practice could ensure that a functioning and effective patient participation group (PPG) was set up.