Parkway Medical Group

Updated 10 August 2023

Parkway Medical Group is based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at:

Chapel House Primary Care Centre,

Hillhead Parkway,

Newcastle upon Tyne,

NE5 1LJ

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

Parkway Medical Group is a medium sized practice providing care and treatment to patients of all ages, to a patient population of approximately 8,645. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is situated in the Chapel House area of Newcastle Upon Tyne and is part of the NHS Newcastle and Gateshead Integrated Commissioning Board (ICB.)

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices and is part of a Primary Care Network with practices in the outer west Newcastle area. Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth decile (6 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 1.4% Asian, 97.5% White, and 1.1% Mixed.

There is a team of 3 GP partners (2 female and 1 male) and 4 long-term locum GPs (2 female, 2 male). There is a nurse practitioner (female), as well as a salaried GP (female) who is currently on maternity leave until January 2024. The practice has 3 nurses (all female) who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions and two healthcare assistants. The GPs are supported at the practice by a practice manager and a team of reception and administrative staff.

Extended access is provided locally by the provider under a separate contract, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. This service offers pre-bookable appointments for patients who require urgent attention at five hub sites across the local ICB area, the hours are:

• 6pm – 8:30pm: Monday to Friday
• 9am – 5pm: Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays

Out of hours services are provided by via the NHS 111 service.

Updated 10 August 2023

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Parkway Medical Group on 8 and 15 June 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring – Not inspected, rating of Good carried over from previous inspection.

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Good

Following our previous inspection on 3 December 2021, the practice was rated requires improvement overall and for the key questions of safe, effective, responsive, and well-led. The practice was rated as good for caring.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Parkway Medical Group on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up a breach of regulation from a previous inspection and in line with our inspection priorities due to the previous overall rating being requires improvement. We followed up on a previous breach relating to good governance.

How we carried out the inspection/review

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.
• Staff questionnaires.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• The practice had significantly improved their governance around safeguarding systems and processes.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The practice had made improvements to monitoring and reviewing patients with long-term conditions and those receiving repeat medications.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice had an efficient and effective appointments system which meant patients could easily access care and treatment in a timely way that was convenient for them.
• Governance structures were now fully embedded. The provider had a wider oversight of the running of the practice as a result.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care