We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 22 August 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The service had not previously been inspected.

The service offers a range of services including evening and weekend pre-bookable GP, Nurse & Healthcare Assistant appointments. It also provides a Sexual Health service on behalf of County Durham & Darlington Foundation Trust for the population of Darlington.

One of the GP’s working in the service is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We obtained feedback through comment cards completed by patients prior to the inspection. Twenty-six people provided feedback about the service.

Our key findings were:

• The service had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they could access care when they needed it.
• Leaders had developed a culture of collaboration and support and were committed to sustainability of general practice.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

The service had offered to run flu clinics to enable all patients the opportunity to be immunised at a time that suited them. There was a strong desire to collaborate with and support local practices. Remuneration of flu clinics would benefit individual practices as they were tasked with the immunisation target.

As an early adopter of extended GP access, the service had been requested to support other areas nationally by NHSE. This ‘buddy scheme’ was delivered by national webinars.

The service led a provider forum for GP practices in Darlington, this had improved GP engagement and ensured information sharing and discussions about new emerging models of care to sustain general practice.