Upper Eden Medical Practice

Updated 4 September 2023

Upper Eden Medical Practice is located at the head of the Eden Valley and provides services from Silver Street, Kirkby Stephen and a branch at Tebay, CA17 4RB. We visited the Kirkby Stephen location as part of our inspection.

At the time of our inspection the practice was being operated by the provider Cumbria Health On Call (CHOC) who had been in a caretaking position for 8 months and were about to finalise their permanent contract. They had taken over the practice when the previous provider had been unable employ enough staff to provide sufficient GP appointments.

The provider is registered to deliver the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures; maternity and midwifery services; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and, surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers a General Medical Services contract (GMS) to a patient population of about 6700 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider Primary Care Network (PCN).

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is on the 7th decile (7 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 8am to 8pm on Tuesday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Out of hours services are provided by Cumbria Health On Call and 111.

Updated 4 September 2023

We carried out an announced inspection at Upper Eden Medical Practice on 10 and 14 July 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Good

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to rate the practice following a change to their registration with CQC. This was therefore the first rated inspection of the service under this provider.

How we carried out the inspection

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.

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.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Care and attention was paid to families who had suffered a bereavement.
• The practice regularly reviewed its access arrangements for patients
• The practice used clinical audits to improve care and treatment.
• Following the COVID-19 pandemic there were recovery plans in place to ensure patient’s received good care.
• 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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services