This practice is rated as outstanding overall. (Previous rating October 2014 – Outstanding)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Outstanding

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Outstanding

Are services well-led? - Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Prudhoe Medical Group on 6 September 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice consistently reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• Feedback from patients who used the service, those close to them and external stakeholders was continually positive about the way staff cared for patients.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that access to appointments was good, staff confirmed this.
• Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care. They had an inspiring shared purpose, strived to deliver and motivated staff to succeed.
• Staff told us they felt supported and engaged with managers and there was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had all-encompassing systems and processes in place to ensure that patients received high quality care and treatment. Significant events triggered clinical audits. Audits identified improvements to patient care, and also associated protocols and templates to systematically implement these improvements. This all together resulted in safe use of innovative approaches to improve how care was delivered. High quality care had been commended by the local clinical commissioning group.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Carry out a risk assessment for non-clinical staff who had not received a DBS check.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Prudhoe Medical Group on 16 October 2014 and visited the surgery in Prudhoe. We inspected this service as part of our new comprehensive inspection programme. This provider had not been inspected before and that was why we included them.

Overall, we rated the practice as outstanding, although there were some areas where the practice should make improvements. Our key findings were as follows:

• Patients reported good access to the practice and continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• Patients said, and our observations confirmed, they were treated with kindness and respect.
• Patient outcomes were at or above average for the locality and good practice guidance was referenced and used routinely.
• The practice was visibly clean and tidy.
• The practice learned from incidents and took action to prevent a recurrence.

We saw the following areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice was considered to be outstanding in terms of their effectiveness. Staff were actively engaged in activities to monitor and improve quality and outcomes for patients.
• Staff were consistent in supporting people to live healthier lives through a targeted and proactive approach to health promotion and prevention of ill-health.
• The practice used computerised tools to identify patients with complex needs who had multidisciplinary care plans documented in their case notes. Care plans had been developed for 160 patients (more than 2% of the practice’s patient list size) and screening for early signs of dementia in patients had been introduced two years ago. This had identified an additional 19 patients, the majority of whom had later received a diagnosis of dementia.
• The practice had a rolling programme of clinical audit. The GPs showed us four examples of clinical audits that had been undertaken in the last year. Three of these were repeat audit cycles, where the practice was able to demonstrate the changes resulting since the initial audits had been carried out. Outcomes for patients had improved as a result.
• The practice demonstrated it was aware of the needs of its population. For example, the percentage of patients using long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) was higher than that being achieved by specialist family planning clinics. The GPs felt this contributed significantly to the practice having a termination of pregnancy rate for its patients of less than half the national average.
• The practice was considered to be outstanding in terms of being well-led. The leadership, governance and culture were used to drive and improve the delivery of high quality, person-centred care.
• There was an open culture within the practice and staff were actively encouraged to raise concerns and suggestions for improvement.
• The leadership were responsible for driving continuous improvement and staff were accountable for delivering change.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider should make improvements. 

The practice should:

• Ensure staff who record the temperatures of fridges used to store vaccines are aware of the acceptable temperature range and know how to respond to recorded temperatures outside this range.

• Improve arrangements for the recording of blank prescription forms on receipt.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice