The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has upgraded the rating of York Street Health Practice, in Leeds, from good to outstanding following an inspection in December.
York Street Health Practice, run by Bevan Community Benefit Society, is a specialist inclusion health GP service which provides care and aims to address health inequalities for people, including those experiencing homelessness, refugees, people seeking asylum, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and sex workers across West and North Yorkshire.
This inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s continual checks on the safety and quality of primary and community care services.
Following the inspection, CQC has also upgraded the ratings of safe, caring and responsive from good to outstanding. Effective and well-led have been rated as good again.
Linda Hirst, CQC deputy director of operations in the north-east, said:
“When we inspected York Street Health Practice, we found a service that was led by exceptional leaders and a dedicated staff team. They put people who often struggle to get appropriate support, at the heart of everything they do to deliver the best possible care.
“York Street is easy to access with kind, discreet and compassionate staff who work hard to eliminate discrimination to provide fair and equal treatment.
“Case studies demonstrated how the practice worked with services such as paramedics, housing services, and drug and alcohol services to ensure a continuity of care for people.
“We were impressed that leaders had created a mobile outreach vehicle, the ‘Bevan Bus’ which was a bus equipped with paramedics and nurses operating from 5am each morning around Leeds to support and treat people experiencing homelessness.
“Leaders also worked with Leeds GATE (Gypsy and Traveller Exchange) to attend a local horse fair and offered health checks to people within the Gypsy and Traveller communities.
“All staff should be extremely proud of the care they’re providing to people. They clearly work hard to provide an exceptional GP service to the people experiencing health inequalities in their locality and other practices should look to this report to see what they can learn about reducing inequalities.”
Inspectors found:
- York Street Health Practice worked in collaboration with Women Friendly Leeds and Gough and Kelly Security to support the Women’s Night Safe Space project to ensure women were safe at night.
- Recent survey results, including from the National GP Patient Survey and the NHS Friends and Family Test, showed people are happy with the service.
- York Street Health Practice supported people to raise concerns and people felt staff treated them with compassion and understanding.
- Staff offered people a catch-up vaccination schedule once registered at the practice, regardless of age to ensure vaccination coverage is as effective as possible in both children and adults.
- Leaders recruited people who had used the service previously into volunteering roles to promote a compassionate and empathetic service for people.
- Staff designed bespoke clinical templates for clinicians to follow to ensure people’s unique healthcare needs were met.
- People felt involved in their care plans and felt confident that staff understood their individual and cultural needs.