High Street Surgery

Updated 21 October 2024

Date of Assessment: 3 February 2025 to 25 February 2025. We conducted this assessment to follow up on concerns identified at the previous inspection published January 2023.

At this assessment, we found the practice had a good learning culture and staff received training and support. Arrangements were in place to respond to people’s individual needs and leaders continued work to improve outcomes and equity in access. Some improvements had been embedded; the process to manage safety alerts, systems for safe recruitment and health and safety, and the monitoring of people’s health. However, improvements were still needed for the management of medicines, correspondence and coding. The provider’s governance systems did not always identify, effectively monitor, and address areas for improvement we found during this assessment.

We found 1 breach of regulation for good governance. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

High Street Surgery is a GP practice delivering General Medical Services to approximately 11800 people. The National General Practice Profile show 96.5% of people registered are White, 1.4% Asian, 1.4% Mixed, 0.4% Black and 0.4% other. The practice has a higher than England average of older people, lower than England average of working age adults and average number of young people registered at the practice. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data shows deprivation within the practice population is in the 2 decile (2 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the population is relative to others. This assessment considered the demographics of people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery.

Updated 21 October 2024

The provider shared details of our Give Feedback on Care (GFC) process on their website. We also reviewed people’s feedback from Healthwatch Suffolk and the NHS website, over the previous 12 months. Feedback was mainly positive in relation to the attitude of clinical staff and clinical care and treatment. Feedback was mixed regarding access to appointments and the management of care and treatment. We spoke with representatives from 3 care homes. Overall feedback was positive, particularly in relation to the clinical care and treatment received, clinician’s kind and caring approach and end of life care. Feedback was positive in relation to planned home visits, however access for urgent appointments was mixed. We reviewed the National GP patient survey, published in July 2024. The 2 indicators for access were below the England average. Of the 5 indicators for people’s experience, 3 were in line with the England average, 1 was slightly below and 1 was below the England average.

The practice collected feedback from the friends and family test. 2324 people had completed the NHS friends and family test from October to December 2024, with 95% of respondents stating their experience of the practice was good or very good. The practice had received 51 complaints in 2024, with themes regarding access, and repeat prescription management. The practice had received 74 compliments from April to December 2024, which included friendly, helpful staff, the knowledge and expertise of clinical staff and access.

There was an active patient participation group (PPG) who represented the views of people using the practice. A representative from the PPG described how practice leaders listened to and acted on the feedback shared. We noted following a request the PPG board had been moved to a more focal place in reception.