The Elms Medical Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Person-centred Care
• Care provision, Integration and continuity
• Providing Information
• Listening to and involving people
• Equity in access
• Equity in experiences and outcomes
• Planning for the future

We carried out an announced assessment of one quality statement, equity of access, under the key question Responsive and found: The scores of the National GP Patient Survey results for 2023 for the practice were lower than national averages. However, leaders used people’s feedback from the National Patient Survey and other evidence to actively seek to improve access for people. Services were designed to make them accessible and timely for people who were most likely to have difficulty accessing care. The provider prioritised, allocated resources and opportunities as needed to tackle inequalities and achieve equity of access.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Person-centred Care during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Care provision, Integration and continuity during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Providing Information during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Listening to and involving people during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

Patient appointments were available either online face to face, telephone, or as a home visit. Patients could book appointments by telephone, online, walking in and could also submit medical or administration requests online via the practice website. Patients could book routine appointments up to 2 weeks in advance. There were urgent on the day appointments. Priority was given to children 12 years and under, and vulnerable patients. During the winter the practice had access to book appointments at a respiratory hub slot if the medical problem was related to a respiratory problem and a ‘surge hub’ if they were struggling to provide appointments. Extended hours appointments were available via the local GP Federation Monday to Friday 6.30pm-8.00pm and Saturday and Sunday 8.00am-6.00pm. The practice had arrangements in place for prioritising patients. Staff had completed care navigation training and the practice had designed and implemented a triage template for staff to follow. This was overseen by the GPs.

The leaders demonstrated they were aware of the challenges to patient access and had acted to improve patient access. They had acted on complaints regarding the telephone system and had upgraded this. The leaders explained they provided opportunities and support for different groups of patient population to overcome health inequalities. For example, they ran ethnicity searches, population age searches and chronic disease searches and patients with a learning disability to identify patient populations. Staff would visit patients who were unable to leave their homes and were acutely unwell. The practice ensured that clinicians worked the same days each week to provide continuity of care. Patient with a chronic disease saw the same clinician where possible.

We reviewed the practice's results in the 2023 National GP Patient Survey taken from 1 January to 31 March 2023. This found when looking at patients’ response to how easy it was to get through to someone at their GP practice on the phone, those who were very satisfied or fairly satisfied with their GP practice appointment times, and those who responded positively to the overall experience of making an appointment the results were below the national average. These results had been consistently below the national average since 2019. The practice had recognised these results were low and had put in place an action plan and worked with the local integrated care board (ICB) to improve access. The practice had carried out their own survey from October to December 2023 and received 23 replies. Example of which the question was asked how easy it was to get through on the telephone 20 of 23 patients (87%) said it was excellent or very good. From the NHS friends and family test for 2023 of patients asked how likely they were to recommend the practice to family and friends 200 out of 245 (82%) said likely or extremely likely. We received a statement from the practice patient participation group who said that there was good access to the surgery. There had been 40 items of feedback left on the NHS choices website in the last 12 months, 29 items of feedback were positive and 11 negative, patients gave good feedback on access and the GPs being supportive. From the negative feedback some patients said they could not get an appointment. When we announced the assessment, we sent out a link to the practice to share with patients to give us feedback. We received 17 responses, all which were positive, the patients told us the service was very good, staff were friendly and helpful and they received good care from the GPs.

We did not look at Equity in experiences and outcomes during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.

We did not look at Planning for the future during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Responsive.