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Amersham Vale Practice, London.

Amersham Vale Practice in London is a Doctors/GP specialising in the provision of services relating to diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning services, maternity and midwifery services, services for everyone and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The last inspection date here was 19th March 2019

Amersham Vale Practice is managed by Amersham Vale Practice.

Contact Details:

Ratings:

For a guide to the ratings, click here.

Safe: Good
Effective: Good
Caring: Good
Responsive: Good
Well-Led: Good
Overall: Good

Further Details:

Important Dates:

    Last Inspection 2019-03-19
    Last Published 2019-03-19

Local Authority:

    Lewisham

Link to this page:

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Inspection Reports:

Click the title bar on any of the report introductions below to read the full entry. If there is a PDF icon, click it to download the full report.

18th January 2019 - During a routine inspection pdf icon

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Amersham Vale Practice on 18 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as good overall, and good for providing safe, effective, caring responsive and well led services.

We have rated the practice as good for providing effective care to people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable but outstanding for providing responsive care.

We have also rated it as good for providing effective and responsive care to older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people and people experiencing poor mental health.

We found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care. They had a shared purpose, strived to deliver and motivated staff to succeed.
  • Feedback from patients who used the service, those close to them and external stakeholders was continually positive about the way staff cared for patients.
  • Staff told us they felt supported and engaged with managers and there was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice had increased the flexibility of access to appointments for vulnerable patients. Those on the register of vulnerable patients were seen within an hour of attending the practice, or received an urgent call back. The practice provided a twice weekly outreach clinic, to those who were homeless/rough sleepers, at a support service for the homeless. Patients were provided with a 20 minute appointment that took account of both physical and any mental health needs.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Improve the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.
  • Carry out regular water temperature recording and monitoring.
  • Identify ways of increasing the percentage of children aged one year old who have completed a primary course of immunisation for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Pertussis, Haemophilus influenza type b.
  • Identify ways of increasing the percentage of eligible women who receive cervical cancer screening.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

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

24th June 2015 - During a routine inspection pdf icon

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Amersham Vale Practice on 24 June 2015. Overall the practice is rated as outstanding.

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

  • The practice had robust safeguarding processes in place and effective systems to ensure at risk children were monitored, for example, frequent child attendees in accident and emergency (A&E).
  • The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes.
  • The practice worked with local organisations to support vulnerable patients, including a homeless shelter and took part in a local project to support patients with severe mental illness.
  • The practice had a range of registers to monitor the most at risk and vulnerable patients including those at risk of unplanned admissions to hospital.
  • 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 had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • A range of appointment options were available, and the practice had increased appointment length to 13-15 minutes for all patients.
  • 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 (PPG).
  • The practice had a clear vision which all staff were aware of. Staff felt supported and motivated by the management team and felt happy to make any suggestions or raise concerns.
  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. There was evidence of actions and learning from incidents that occurred, however the practice did not have an incident reporting policy.
  • Some risks were assessed and managed including infection control, however the practice did not have assurances that regular health and safety and fire risk assessments for the premises were carried out by the buildings management company, and whether any risks had been identified.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

  • Safeguarding processes for the practice were embedded in practice culture and all staff had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The practice had a child protection clinical and administrative lead and there was evidence of regular links externally with the clinical commissioning group (CCG) safeguarding meetings as well as discussion in weekly clinical meetings.
  • The practice demonstrated improved patient outcomes in a range of population groups, for example, increased point of care testing for HIV, contributing to HIV guidelines to manage HIV in primary care; improved chlamydia screening rates and improved uptake of cervical screening and subsequent treatment following a study where HPV self-swabs were implemented.
  • The practice had set a higher target to achieve than the national QOF target, in line with best practice, to ensure they were monitoring more patients with the potential for uncontrolled diabetes and they had improved the patient pathway for diabetes care.
  • The practice had increased the flexibility of access to appointments for vulnerable patients who were unable to utilise the standard appointment and telephone system, by implementing a register of those patients in the practice and prioritising them for appointments. Patients on this register were seen within an hour of attending the practice, or received an urgent call back.
  • The practice worked closely with a local homeless shelter to provide general medical care. These patients were able to access traditional primary care through the practice, including nursing care and vaccinations.

  • The practice had a very active patient participation group (PPG) and had implemented an administrative PPG lead to work directly to improve patient and practice communications. The PPG meetings included external speakers and themed PPG meetings.

However, there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should:

  • Obtain assurances that health and safety risk assessments for the premises, including buildings assessments and fire risk assessments have been completed and whether any risks have been identified.
  • Improve the incident reporting process to include reporting of near misses and non-clinical incidents as well as significant clinical events and ensure an incident reporting policy is in place.
  • Update infection control policies, to ensure policies include those for sharps, spillages and management of bodily fluids and control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH).
  • Ensure that all practice procedures are documented and are available for staff to refer to where necessary, including temporary staff and trainee GPs.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

 

 

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