Hollyhurst Medical Centre

Updated 13 December 2022

Hollyhurst Medical Centre is located in the Blaydon area of Gateshead at:

Hollyhurst Medical Centre
8 Front Street
Blaydon On Tyne
Tyne And Wear
NE21 4RD

There is a branch surgery at:

Elvaston Road Surgery,
7 Elvaston Road,
Ryton,
NE40 3NT

We visited the main registered location as part of this inspection.

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

The practice is situated within the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) area and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of about 4,500. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth most deprived 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 0.7% Asian, 98.4% White, 0.2% Black, 0.6% Mixed, and 0.1% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population shows there are more older people of working in the area (at 25.7%) than the average for the local CCG (16.1%) and England (17.7%). There are less people in the working age (57.4%, CCG 65.8%, England 62.3%) and younger age ranges (16.9%, CCG 18.2%, England 20%) than average.

There is lead GP (male) and 1 salaried GP and a long-term locum GP (both female). The practice has 2 practice nurses (both female) who provide nurse led clinics for long-term condition and 1 healthcare assistant. The GPs are supported at the practice by a practice manager and team of reception/administration staff.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then they arrange this with the patient.

The practice is part of the Gateshead Outer West Primary Care Network (PCN), which is a wider network of GP practices to enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care for people close to home. Other GP practices in the network are Crawcrook Surgery; Rowlands Gill Medical Centre; Oldwell Surgery; Chopwell Primary Healthcare Centre; Grange Road Surgery and Blaydon GP Practice.

Extended access, where late evening and weekend appointments are available, and Out of Hours Services are provided locally by Gateshead Community Based Care Services.

Updated 13 December 2022

We carried out an announced focused inspection) at Hollyhurst Medical Centre on 21 and 26 October 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - requires improvement

Caring - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Responsive - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 28 September 2021, the practice was rated requires improvement overall and for the key questions, was the practice safe, effective and well led. The key questions, was the practice responsive and caring, were both rated as good.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up concerns and breaches of regulation from a previous inspection.

The focus of the inspection was the key questions:

• Safe
• Effective
• Well led
• Also, the breaches of Regulation 17 HSCA (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 – Good Governance and Regulation 12 HSCA (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment.
• We also followed up on the areas where we said they should make improvements in the previous inspection.

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.
• Sending questionnaires to staff working in the practice.

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 had made and sustained improvements in several areas following the CQC inspection in September 2021.
• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Most patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective service because

• Whilst they had made some improvements, the practice should improve the way they supported those with poor control of their asthma symptoms.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Improve following up patients with poor control of their asthma symptoms.
• Continue with the progress made to improve the sustainability of staffing levels to improve continuity of care.
• Continue with plans to implement a strategy in response to when patients fail to attend for health checks and reviews.
• Improve the significant events process to ensure systematic learning from trends and themes and review any improvements implemented have been successful.
• Maintain a full record of staff vaccination status and ensure the safety and security of paper prescription stationery in line with current UK Health Security Agency guidance.
• Review and update the health and safety risk assessment to capture and mitigate any new or emerging risks on a regular basis.
• Ensure flooring in clinical areas is in line with national guidance on infection control in the built environment.
• Improve coverage of childhood immunisations and cervical screening.

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