Ashby Clinic Also known as Safecare Network Limited

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Ashby Clinic as part of our inspection schedule as this is a new provider.

Safecare Network Limited (Ltd) is a not-for-profit Federation of 19 North Lincolnshire GP practices, covering approximately 170,000 patients. They provide GP advisory services to community health teams and the ambulance service, specialist assessment for frail and elderly patients, urgent care services delivered from the emergency department in Scunthorpe General Hospital and Diana Princess of Wales hospital Grimsby and out of hours GP services, provided from Ashby Turn primary care centre. They also manage a COVID19 vaccination site at the Ironstone Centre in Scunthorpe and undertake rota management for extended hours services for the Primary Care Network.

The Clinical Director of the provider, Safecare Network Ltd. is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We only received feedback about the service from one patient who was extremely positive. We spoke with staff from other organisations who worked with each of the different services and all were positive about the staff and services provided and felt these made a difference to patients.

Our key findings were:

• The service didn’t always provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm as systems for recruitment and oversight of health and safety matters was not effective.
• 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.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care but there was a lack of management oversight relating to risk management.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Ensure recruitment procedures are established and operated effectively to ensure only fit and proper persons are employed.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take action to gain assurance chaperone training has been completed by staff who are providing this service.
• Take action to improve clinical peer review of consultation records.
• Involve staff in the development and implementation of the vison and strategy.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services