Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

On 3 March 2016, we carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice, which at that time was provided by Shiremoor Medical Group. We rated the practice as inadequate in all five domains of safe, effective, caring,responsive and well-led and the practice was placed in special measures.

A new provider, Bridge Medical, was put in place to provide Regulated Activities from 1 April 2016. After the comprehensive inspection, the new provider wrote to us to say what they would do to address the issues raised at the inspection. The new provider has changed the name of the practice to Bridge Medical. We undertook this comprehensive inspection on 11 October 2016 to check that the new provider had followed their plan. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’link for Shiremoor Medical Group on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Overall, the practice is rated as good.

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

• The new provider completed the process Complete the process for registering as a provider of regulated activities and for appointing a registered manager for the practice in line with CQC guidance in January 2017.

• The new provider had taken effective steps to make improvements following the last inspection in March 2016; some of the new arrangements were at an early stage and work was still in progress in many areas.They had developed a clear vision, strategy and plan to deliver high quality safe care and promote good outcomes for patients.
• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care inline with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion,dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. They commented positively on the changes to the practice since the new provider had taken over and on the excellent care they had received from several of the new GPs.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• Some patients said they found it difficult to make routine appointments with a GP. There was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the new management structure and clinical team. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on. Staff told us they had been engaged by the practice to support the changes that had been made. Staff were consistent in their praise of the level of support that was now available from management and clinical staff, they felt that they could raise issues and that there was a no blame culture at the practice.
• The new provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour regulation.
• The new provider was undertaking work to improve the care and support offered to carers, for example, a carer’s policy had been introduced and a carers champion had recently been appointed

The area where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the management of complaints at the practice to ensure verbal complaints are taken account of.

I am taking Shiremoor Medical Group out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements made to the quality of care provided at this practice by the new provider.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice