Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

St Levan is a general practice surgery that provides NHS services and is based in a modern purpose built building at 350 St Levan Road, Keyham, in the outskirts of Plymouth.

The practice comprises of five GPs and a managing partner working in partnership. The practice currently has 6800 patients listed. We talked with six patients on the day of our inspection and they were all satisfied with the standard of care, service and treatment they received. We saw 21 comment cards had been completed by patients who used the practice. We noted that all of these had been positively completed with patients stating they received a very high level of care from all staff at the practice and felt involved in all aspects of their treatment and care.

Our key findings were as follows:

We found that the practice engaged with the patient population on a regular basis. Evidence showed that the practice responded positively to feedback from annual surveys. The practice kept patients informed via their own website.

The practice had a stable staff group, many of which had worked there for over ten years. All staff we spoke with told us they felt supported and well led. Staff said that their opinions and ideas were listened to and taken seriously. St Levan surgery is a training practice for trainee doctors and we saw evidence that staff training and involvement formed a strong part of the overall management of the practice.

The practice is rated as good. We found St Levan to be a well led practice that was safe, caring, effective and responsive to patients’ needs. The practice showed they had an open, fair and transparent manner with the management team showing clear leadership. The patients, clinical and administrative staff we spoke with all told us they felt the practice was well led, approachable and demonstrated good working relations with other health professionals, organisations and local authorities.

We found the practice had initiated many positive service improvements for their patient population that were over and above their contractual obligations, particularly for people in vulnerable circumstances.

The practice had been awarded two awards. The National HSJ Acute and Primary Care Innovation Award for its appointment system which has improved outcomes and patient experience. The practice obtained the Investors in People award in 1997 and has continued to maintain the award since then. This showed a commitment to adhere to the principles of excellence in people management.

Historical surveys showed a significant demand for extended hours, patients wanted to see the GP of their choice and extended hours did not facilitate this. As a result of this the practice introduced a patient access system which offered all patients a same day telephone consultation regardless of urgency or importance. Those patients who required an appointment were offered one on the same day.  The system allowed flexibility. For example all patients were offered a 15 minute appointment and longer if needed.

There was a large part of the local population who had problems related to substance misuse. The practice developed skills to ensure these patients received good care. One GP had a special interest and had developed excellent links with local drugs workers and rehabilitation centres. All GPs had extended skills in the management of substance misuse and attended regular drug and alcohol training updates as part of this speciality work.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice