This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating February 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 inspection at Helston Medical Centre on 29 June 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice 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 patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. Staff said the practice was a good place to work and added that the leadership team were supportive and encouraged career development and learning to help improve patient safety.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

The practice had recognised the needs of the population and the difficulty for some patients accessing healthcare and offered additional support and services to reduce the need for long journeys to secondary care and improve access to locally based services for example:

• The practice gained funding for a Community Co-ordinator who proactively reached out to the most vulnerable of their population and direct them towards the support available locally. This also forms part of a wider programme, including training a broader group of the community to recognise where help is needed and signpost to the most appropriate resources.
• The practice secured funding for a community hub at the local community hospital, with work due to start later this summer. This will provide a state-of-the-art resource that helps to de-medicalise problems at the front door of primary care, and to allow them to embed social prescribing into General Practice.
• As the lead practice in their locality they have recognised that isolation and loneliness can have a significant impact upon the health of their population so they have driven a community mapping exercise with Age UK, that gives a resource of all the clubs, groups, carers, volunteers and charities based locally to help improve patients wellbeing.
• The practice was the only practice in the area, working to be involved with the “Discharge to Assess” (D2A) programme. D2A is about funding and supporting people to leave hospital, when safe and appropriate to do so, and continuing their care and assessment out of hospital. They can then be assessed for their longer-term needs in the right place allowing patients to be cared for in an environment appropriate for their needs.

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.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

The Helston medical centre was inspected on the19th February 2015. This was a comprehensive inspection. We rated this practice as Good.

We found the practice to be good for providing safe, responsive and effective and well led services. It was also good for providing services for older people, people with long term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people including those recently retired and students, people who were vulnerable and those experiencing poor mental health and those with dementia.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from incidents were taken advantage of.
• 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 implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the Patient Reference Group.
• Patients had a variety of ways to make appointments and found the practice to be flexible in meeting their needs. We were told patients could always get an appointment.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Patients told us they always found the practice to be clean and safe.
• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its first priority and high standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice