Cedars Medical Group

Updated 9 February 2024

Cedars Medical Group is located in Burnopfield, Tyne and Wear.

The address of the practice is:

Cedar Crescent

Burnopfield

Newcastle upon Tyne

Tyne and Wear

NE16 6HU

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities;

Diagnostic and screening procedures

Family planning

Maternity and midwifery services

Surgical procedures

Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The practice is situated within North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) and provides services to approximately 6,000 patients under the terms of a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices known as Derwentside primary care network (PCN).

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in decile 6 (1 out 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 97.9% White, 0.9% Asian, 0.8% Mixed, 0.2% Black and 0.2% Other.

The service is run by a partnership of 2 GPs and a non-clinical partner. The team includes 4 salaried GPs (total of 3.75 whole time equivalent GPs), 1 nurse practitioner, 3 practice nurses and a health care assistant. The GPs are supported at the practice by a practice manager and team of reception/administration staff. The practice is a teaching practice and also hosts medical students.

The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments. The practice is open between 8am to 6pm Mondays, 8.30am to 6pm Tuesdays and Fridays and 7.30am to 6pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Patients could also be booked for appointments in the GP extended access service provided by Derwentside Healthcare, which is a federation of GP practices within the locality. Extended access appointments were available from 6.30pm to 8.30pm Monday to Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday mornings. The federation also provided a weekend home visiting service for patients who were not able to attend the practice in person.

Patients can access the Out of hours service by calling 111.

Updated 9 February 2024

We carried out an announced assessment of Cedars Medical Group on 1 February 2024. The assessment focused on the responsive key question.

Following our previous inspection on 13 February 2019 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions. The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Cedars Medical Group on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

The service continues to be rated as good for the responsive key question as a result of the findings of this focused assessment. The practice continues to be rated as good overall as this was the rating given at the last comprehensive inspection.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive – Good

Well-led - Good

Why we carried out this review

We carried out this assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet demand for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers.

We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know colleagues are doing this while demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. In this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. These assessments of the responsive key question include looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement.

How we carried out the review

This assessment was carried out remotely. It did not include a site visit.

The process included:

• Conducting an interview with the provider and members of staff using video conferencing.
• Reviewing patient feedback from a range of sources
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• Reviewing data we hold about the service
• Seeking information/feedback from relevant stakeholders

Our findings

We based our judgement of the responsive key question on a combination of:

• what we found when we met with the provider
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

• During the assessment process, the provider highlighted the work they were doing to maintain and improve the responsiveness of the service for their patient population.
• The provider organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. They worked proactively and alongside other agencies to meet the needs of the patients and improve their experiences of care and treatment.
• People were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• Complaints were listened to, managed appropriately and used to improve the quality of care.

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 Health Care