Castletown Medical Centre

Updated 15 August 2023

Castletown Medical Centre is in Sunderland Tyne and Wear and provides services from, 6 the Broadway Castletown, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR5 3EX. We visited this location as part of our inspection.

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 Sunderland Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers a General Medical Services contract (GMS) to a patient population of about 2000. 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 in the second most deprived decile (2 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

There are 2 GP's working at the practice (both male). The practice has a practice manager and a nurse practitioner. There is a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is open between 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including telephone consultations and advance appointments.

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

Updated 15 August 2023

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Castletown Medical Centre on 02 and 12 June 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 24 February and 1 March 2022, the practice was rated requires improvement overall The conditions were imposed as a result of the May 2021 inspection when we rated the provider as inadequate. We rated the key questions of safe, effective and well-led as requires improvement and caring and responsive as good.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the 'all reports' link for Castletown 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 from our 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.

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:

• There had been improvements to the way safe care and treatment was delivered since our previous inspection. The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• There were comprehensive systems in place to keep patients safe, which took into account current best practice. Projects and audits had been carried out to improve the prescribing of medicines.
• The practice had improved systems that ensured patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Complaints were dealt with as per the practice policy and were discussed to help improve practice
• Staff involved patients in decisions about their care.
• The leadership governance and culture at the practice had improved. They were developing new ways of working to meet challenges they had identified through their quality improvement systems.
• Staff were positive about working for the organisation.

At this inspection we also reviewed the conditions we imposed on the providers registration as a result of our inspection in May 2021. The evidence we collected confirmed that all of the conditions had been met, so the conditions will now be removed.

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

• The provider should work to understand the results of their National GP Patient Survey where patients have reported they don't feel listened to or treated with care and concern by their healthcare professionals. They should endeavour to make improvements in these areas.
• Continue to develop systems to ensure all medication reviews are carried out in a timely manner.

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