The Care Quality Commission
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Archived: Packmoor Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Thomas Street, Packmoor, Stoke On Trent, Staffordshire, ST7 4SS 0300 123 0874

Provided and run by:
Network Healthcare Solutions Limited

All Inspections

11/04/2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Packmoor Medical Centre on 3 December 2014 at which two breaches of legal requirements were found. The practice was rated as requires improvement overall. After the inspection, the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet legal requirements in relation to:

  • Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

  • Regulation 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We undertook an announced comprehensive inspection of Packmoor Medical Centre on 11 April 2016. This inspection was carried out to check that improvements to meet legal requirements planned by the practice after our comprehensive inspection on 3 December 2014 had been made. The inspection concluded that the practice had followed their action plan and met legal requirements. The scale of improvements made has led to the practice receiving an overall rating of good.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:

  • Implement a consistent system for checking that monitoring for patients, who take long term medicines on a shared care basis, has been provided before the medicines are issued.

  • Improve the identification of patients who may be carers.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

03/12/2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Packmoor Medical Centre on 3 December 2014. Overall the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Specifically, we found the practice to require improvement for providing safe, effective, responsive and well led services. It also required improvement for providing services for the people with long-term conditions, older people, families, children and young people and working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people with poor mental health (including those with dementia). We found that the practice was good at providing caring services.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • Patients were not always kept safe as the arrangements in place for recording, investigating and learning from risks to safety were not robust. The practice was not reporting significant events effectively which could result in a lack of learning , and compromise safety
  • The majority of the patients we spoke with mentioned difficulty in accessing the practice by telephone. The most recent GP national patient survey data supported these views.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • There was a lack of on-site clinical leadership which caused confusion over team members’ roles and responsibilities.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider must:

  • Improve the recording, investigation and dissemination of learning from significant events.
  • Regularly seek the views of patients using the practice.

In addition the provider should:

  • Review policies and procedures to ensure they are current and in date.
  • Investigate the cause of higher than expected results in relation to antibiotic prescribing and amend practise if necessary.
  • Review the business continuity plan and mitigate risks.
  • Record minutes of meetings to assist in information sharing and activity governance.
  • Review patients identified on practice registers as needing higher level support.
  • Ensure that the method of complaint recording reflects all complaints received.
  • Understand and record the demographic ethnicity breakdown of all patients registered at the practice.
  • Ensure that telephone access for patients contacting the practice is fit for purpose.
  • Review the arrangements for clinical leadership at the practice.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice