Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Portslade Health Centre Medical Practice on 30 September 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good. Specifically, we found the practice to be outstanding for providing well led services. The practice was good for providing safe, effective, caring and responsive services. The practice was also rated as 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 whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. 

• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they met people’s needs.

• The practice team was forward thinking and creative and was part of local and national pilot schemes to improve outcomes for patients in the area. Staff were encouraged to be innovative in their approach to improving outcomes for patients and to meet individual patients’ needs.

• A programme of continuous clinical and internal audit was used to monitor quality and to make improvements. Governance arrangements reflected best practice guidance.

• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of team working across all roles. There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt well supported by management.

• Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned. Staff were encouraged to progress and develop within their roles.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.

• Urgent appointments were available on the day they were requested. However, some patients told us that they sometimes had to wait for non-urgent appointments with a named GP.

• The practice proactively sought feedback from staff, patients and members of their patient participation group (PPG), which it acted upon.

We saw areas of outstanding practice including:

• There was a strong focus upon openness, transparency, continual learning and improvement at all levels within the practice. Leaders were highly visible, accessible and effective. The practice team was forward thinking and creative and was part of local and national pilot schemes to improve outcomes for patients.  

• The practice provided a weekly drop in sexual health service for young patients under the age of 24 years. This service was also open to young patients not registered with the practice.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

The provider should:

• Ensure the practice staff training matrix is updated to reflect the training planned and completed.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Portslade Health Centre Medical Practice is a GP surgery with approximately 12,100 registered patients situated in the Portslade area of Brighton and Hove. The practice provides a range of services for patients, which include clinics to manage long term conditions, family planning and child health. Portslade patients are signposted to and well supported by local community support groups.

The majority of patients we spoke with gave positive feedback about the practice and staff. We reviewed the results of the last patient survey undertaken in 2013. This showed patients were consistently pleased with the service they received.

Our key findings were:

The practice had responded effectively to safeguarding concerns and had robust processes and procedures to keep patients safe.

There was evidence of collaborative working between the practice and the local clinical commissioning group (CCG). A GP partner was on the board of the CCG and the practice was directly involved in influencing and shaping local services to meet patient needs. The practice was fully engaged in the local health economy and was proactive in responding to patient needs. Patients with mental health concerns, those in vulnerable circumstances and young people were particularly well supported.

The GP partners and practice management team were supportive and staff found them very approachable. There were good governance and risk management measures in place.

During our inspection we looked at how well services are provided for specific groups of people and what good care looks like for them. The population groups we reviewed were:

• Older people
• People with long-term conditions
• Mothers, babies, children and young people
• The working-age population and those recently retired
• People in vulnerable circumstances who may have poor access to primary care
• People experiencing mental health problems

We found the practice provided a responsive service for some patients within each population group.