Annual Report - April 2023 - March 2024

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We currently have 16,439 patients registered with us and we are open from 07:30 until 18:30 Monday to Friday. We hold a Saturday morning clinic from 09:00 until 13:00. We also accommodate the out-of-hours nurse led clinics at the weekends.

Background

We are a large GP training practice on the South Coast of England, situated in Worthing, West Sussex. Worthing is a popular place, sandwiched in a three-mile plain between the South Downs and the English Channel. It is one of the largest seaside towns on the South Coast with an extensive shopping area, beaches, theatres, restaurants, sports facilities, and schools catering for a range of educational needs. It also has many residential nursing and care homes.

We have a high proportion of elderly patients within our demographic. Over one quarter of our patients have long-term conditions including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, or respiratory conditions.

We use EMIS Web to store all our patient records securely, and communications received from external organisations are attached via Docman, an electronic document management system. We are piloting EMIS X, which is currently being rolled -out, and this should further improve our efficiency.

We were rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission for a second time in 2022, with only 1% of practices in England achieving this rating following consecutive inspections, and we continue to uphold the standards that gained us this accolade.

Profile

Who We Are - Our Philosophy - Putting patients at the heart of everything we do

The philosophy of the practice is to provide a high standard of patient care in an efficient and well organised but friendly environment. Patient interests are kept to therefore with a strong emphasis on ease of access and high-quality delivery. Training and education are also a key priority for the practice. We aim to provide good accessible medical care to our local community, a healthy work environment where all members of the team are valued, and keep abreast of changes in the NHS.

GP Partners

• Dr Marian English
• Dr Catherine Joslin
• Dr Purvisha Patel
• Dr David Stokes
• Dr Alison Corney
• Dr Jaspal Mahil

We have four salaried GPs, three Paramedic Practitioners, two Advanced Nurse Practitioners, three Clinical Pharmacist Prescribers and a Physician Associate supporting the GP Partners with their clinical caseload.

Our six Practice Nurses (including three Nurse Prescribers) cover family planning, asthma, COPD, diabetes, breast screening, cervical screening, wound care and smoking cessation - they are supported by three Registered Nurse Associates, two Health Care Assistants and three Phlebotomists. Our Medicines Management Team includes the three Clinical Pharmacists, two Pharmacy Technicians, four Medicines Administrators and a Medicines Manager. The strategic and operational aspects of running the surgery are led by the Practice Business Manager who is strongly supported by a management team covering administration, medicines, finance, data quality and patient services.

Premises

The premises are owned by the GP Partners. We have a total gross internal area of 1,320m² and 10 parking spaces, we also have an ambulance bay, and we are fully accessible for disabled patients. We are situated on the southern side of St Lawrence Avenue at its junction with Rectory Road (A2031), within a pleasant residential area some 550 yards north of West Worthing station, and just under a mile north west of Worthing town centre.

There are no parking restrictions to either road except at the junction.

Staff Accommodation

We have a large reception area, eight offices, one kitchen, a staff room and two staff toilets plus a staff toilet/shower room. We also have a sheltered garden with seating and tables for the staff to use.

Patient Accommodation

The clinical space comprises 16 consulting rooms plus seven treatment/clinic rooms for the team of nurses, GPs that undertake minor surgery, the health care assistants, and external services. There are three disabled patient toilets and a large ground floor education room with kitchenette, separate entrance, and toilet. There are also three waiting areas – the main downstairs waiting room, the nurses waiting area and a smaller waiting room upstairs.

Dispensary

Tarring Community Pharmacy opened on the St Lawrence Surgery site in July 2011. The pharmacy has the same opening hours as the Practice and it continues to be an extremely useful facility for our patients.
79 St Lawrence Avenue, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 7JL www.stlawrencesurgery-worthing.nhs.uk

Information Technology

We strive to keep hard copy paperwork to a minimum and currently use the computerised EMIS Web clinical system, together with Docman for uploading communications received from external organisations electronically. The computer terminals are networked throughout the practice and there is shared access to protocols, guidelines, and documents for all staff.

Our website is easily accessible and has up-to-date information on opening times, services, and news to reflect any changes within the practice.

We also have three Facebook pages:

• General Facebook page with all the surgery news - this is a closed Facebook page that only patients can access. They can comment or feed back if they choose to.
• Children with Additional Needs is a Facebook page that is run by the parents and is accessible to all.
• Patient Participation Funding Raising page.

We have a staff intranet, TeamNet, which has enabled us to modernise the way we communicate with our staff and monitor our performance, compliance, and effectiveness.

The practice has developed standard operating procedures, protocols, and templates to ensure consistency and quality in the management of chronic diseases, to achieve high levels of care. We also use Ardens searches and software.

We use AccuRx to communicate with our patients via text.

Patient Services

We offer a full range of appointments to our patients. These include face-to-face, telephone and video consultations, and Econsults (a written online consultation service). We have a texting service for our patients to remind them of their appointments and to message them with information and advice. We have a clinician in the main office with the patient services team all day, signposting patients to the most appropriate health care professional dependent on clinical need. Our team of GPs, GP trainees, Paramedic Practitioners, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Associate are all on hand to see patients in the most appropriate way.

We have monthly multidisciplinary frailty/palliative care meetings, where the needs of frail elderly people with complex needs and end of life care are discussed. We hold monthly child and adult safeguarding meetings and continually strive to maintain a close working relationship with social services.

The services we offer are:

• 24 hour Blood Pressure Monitoring
• Childhood Immunisations
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease clinics and Spirometry Testing
• Covid vaccination programmes
• Diabetes Management
• Drug Monitoring
• Ear syringing
• Family Planning
• Female Health Care
• Frailty Management
• HPV Vaccine (vaccination against cervical cancer)
• Influenza Immunisations
• IUCD and Implant Fitting
• Leg Ulcer Management
• Medication Reviews
• Mental Health Support
• Microsuction
• Minor Surgery
• Neo-Natal Care
• NHS Health Checks
• NHS Health Screening
• Nursing Home Care
• Phlebotomy
• Pneumococcal Vaccinations
• Pre-School Boosters
• PSA Monitoring for prostate cancer
• Respiratory Management including asthma and COPD
• Shingles Vaccinations
• Smoking Cessation

Friends of St Lawrence Surgery Patient Participation Group

Function and Purpose

We are strongly supported by the members of the Patient Participation Group who assist the surgery by:

• acting as ‘critical friend’ and developing projects to help improve the experience of patients attending the surgery and to make the best use of GP time
• providing a forum to ensure patients are kept informed about the wider changes within the NHS and social care acting as a representative group that can be called upon to influence the local provision of health and social care
• raising funds to enable the practice to purchase equipment that is not normally funded by the NHS, and to support and improve the work of thesurgery for the benefit of the patients.

Activities and Events

The walking group, St Lawrence Strollers, has continued to develop and expand its activities. It is now an independent walking group with its own guidelines and training programme. Liaison with other local groups continues and the Singing Group attracts a regular membership. These groups help to improve the general health and welfare of their members. The Patient Group has continued with its usual fund-raising activities and this income has been supplemented by generous donations and legacies.

They are currently fundraising for electronic couches.

Complaints/Compliments

We have had 41 complaints this year which have been discussed at practice meetings when there was learning to gain. We also had 33 compliments about the practice team, premises, and customer care that patients received.

Training and Development

Education has always been an important part of our practice. We feel a strong responsibility for training future doctors and GPs, who often go on to work in the local area. We have two qualified GP trainers and four clinical supervisors directly involved in training and supervising junior doctors (ST1, 2 & 3 and F2 doctors). Two of our GPs are also involved in teaching and supervising medical students from Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

We usually have six trainees in different clinical roles, and at different stages of their training, in our Practice at any one time. Their supervision and workload vary according to need and, overall, these trainees bring talent and benefits to the surgery with their skills and enthusiasm. The learning environment created is an advantage to all the clinical staff at the practice.

We plan quarterly in-house quality improvement sessions to ensure we continually develop all aspects of the surgery, and we have regular clinical education meetings in addition to protected afternoon training sessions on a quarterly basis.

Staff Communication

There are regular practice meetings and departmental meetings to which all clinical and non-clinical staff are invited as appropriate. The clinicians also have a protected coffee break every morning. This is an essential time for staff to meet and discuss any clinical issues, support each other etc.

TeamNet is our staff intranet and is very comprehensive, with all information kept upto-date. Weekly updates are circulated to the staff and information is shared on a regular basis.

Recruitment and Retention

The patient services team continues to have a comparatively high turnover of staff due to the consistently stressful nature of the work. We continue to look at how this can be improved.

Summary of Achievements

We continue to run seasonal Covid and flu vaccination clinics, vaccinating our clinically vulnerable patients and housebound patients. We are rated CQC outstanding and hold a Gold Award for Pride in Practice for excellence in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans healthcare.

We are a veteran and dementia friendly practice and we are also safe surgery, providing accessible services to all. We are actively involved in a collaboration with the local schools and colleges and have created a network to help us, and them, support vulnerable and socially challenging children.

External Representation/Involvement

Practice Manager (Jo Wadey):

• Chair of West Sussex Practice Managers Association
• Specialist Advisor to the Care Quality Commission, ensuring the Practice continuously meets the requirements of its regulators and strives to maintain the outstanding rating.

GP Partner (Dr David Stokes):

• Chair of Innovations in Primary Care

St Lawrence Surgery are part of the Central Worthing Primary Care Network working closely with Broadwater Surgery and Victoria Road Surgery on Covid vaccination programmes, out of hour appointments, winter pressure clinics.

The Central Worthing Primary Care Network also employs social prescribers and mental health workers for the patients of these three practices.

Published: Jun 3, 2024