Background to this inspection
Updated
5 September 2018
Birbeck Medical Group is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services. The practice provides services to over 14,600 patients from the following location: Penrith Health Centre, Bridge Lane, Penrith, CA11 8HW. We visited this address as part of the inspection. The practice is part of NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Deprivation indicators place this practice in an area with a score of eight out of ten. A lower number means an area is more deprived. People living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services. This practice had lower levels of deprivation when compared to the local CCG and England averages. The practice has greater numbers of patients aged 65 and over compared to CCG and England averages.
The practice occupies a purpose built building which it shares with another practice. Consultation rooms and patient areas are on the ground floor. There is car parking directly outside, with disabled bays.
The practice team comprises 10 GPs (five partners, five salaried GPs), seven practice nurses, two advanced nurse practitioners, three healthcare assistants, a prescribing pharmacist, and a team of management and administrative staff.
When the practice is closed patients are directed to the NHS 111 service, with out of hours services being provided by Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC). This information is also available on the practices’ website and in the practice leaflet.
Updated
5 September 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous rating June 2015 – Good)
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? - Good
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Birbeck Medical Group on 5 July 2018 as part of our inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
•Recommendations made during the last CQC inspection had been acted on and improvements had been made.
•The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
•The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
•Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
•Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
•The practice made good use of social prescribing, and had close links with a number of organisations in the local community that promoted healthy living.
•There was a nurse practitioner who specialised in sexual health. The practice provided sexual health services for their own patients as well as other practices in the area.
•There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
We saw two areas of outstanding practice:
•The practice held weekly learning disability clinics and patients attending these clinics were encouraged to contribute to their own action plan which they were then given to keep and refer to. These were one-to-one sessions to review patient’s health and wellbeing. The practice had a higher than average number of patients reporting a learning disability (3.8% compared to a local average of 2.9% and national average of 3.1%)
•Nurses at the practice had been trained in insulin initiation so that they could begin treatment for patients in low-risk diabetes cases. Nurses did home visits to assess patients’ insulin, and they worked closely with other clinicians, such as podiatrists and secondary care consultants. So far, 14 patients had been initiated on insulin by nurses at the practice, saving them from having to access secondary care for this service.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
•Where staff have not had Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks a risk assessment should be carried out detailing why one has not been deemed necessary.
•Continue to request that the fire risk assessment of the premises is updated.
•Continue to request that improvements are carried out to the premises to help patients who may require additional assistance.
•Continue to maintain an up-to-date staff training matrix to assist in ensuring staff have completed all mandatory training requirements and updates.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.