Background to this inspection
Updated
4 February 2020
Dr AMJ Bower and Partners (also known as Bow Medical Practice), Iter Cross, Junction Road, Bow, Crediton, Devon, EX17 6FB is located within the Devon local authority and is one of 126 practices serving the NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
It is a rural practice which provides general medical services to approximately 5,400 patients. It is also a dispensing practice which is where GPs can prescribe and dispense medicines directly to patients who live a set distance from the nearest pharmacy.
The practice has a slightly lower proportion of registered patients (56.2%) who are of working age when compared to the CCG and national averages of 57.8% and 62% respectively. It has a comparable percentage (24.2%) of elderly patients over 65 years of age when compared to the local average which is 23.6% but higher than the national average which is 17.3%.
There are accessible facilities, with ground floor consulting rooms.
Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as sixth on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.
The practice is led by two GP Partners (one male and one female) and a female non-clinical Managing Partner who are contracted to provide Personal Medical Services (PMS) and who are registered with the CQC for the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The Partners are supported by two female salaried GPs, one regular locum GP, two Practice Nurses, one Health Care Assistant (HCA), five dispensing staff and nine additional administration and reception staff.
Out of hour’s services are not provided as these are provided by DevonDocs whose contact details are available in the practice and on the website.
The practice has a branch surgery, North Tawton Medical Practice, Devonshire House, Essington Road, North Tawton, Devon, EX20 2EX but this was not inspected during this inspection.
Updated
4 February 2020
We carried out an announced focussed inspection at Dr AMJ Bower and Partners on 5 December 2019 as part of our inspection programme.
We carried out an inspection of this service following our annual review of the information available to us including information provided by the practice. Our review indicated that there may have been a significant change (either deterioration or improvement) to the quality of care provided since the last inspection.
This inspection focused on the following key questions:
- Are services effective?
- Are services well led?
Because of the assurance received from our review of information, we carried forward the ratings for the following key questions:
- Are services safe? (Good)
- Are services caring? (Outstanding)
- Are services responsive? (Outstanding)
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 have rated this practice as good for providing effective and well led services because:
- People had good outcomes because they received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Information about people’s care and treatment was routinely collected, monitored and acted upon.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. 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.
- Clinical and internal audit processes functioned well and had a positive impact in relation to quality governance.
The practice was previously rated as outstanding for providing responsive care for all population groups. Therefore, the overall rating for all population groups remained as outstanding.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Review how consent is recorded in the patient record, particularly for procedures such as minor surgery.
- Continue to implement actions to improve uptake for cervical screening.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care