Background to this inspection
Updated
30 December 2019
Brannel Surgery, Rectory Road, St. Stephen, St Austell, Cornwall, PL26 7RL is located within the Cornwall local authority and is one of 63 practices serving the NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
It is a rural practice and provides general medical services to approximately 5,300 patients and dispensing facilities to approximately 4,200 of them. A dispensing practice is where GPs can prescribe and dispense medicines directly to patients who live a set distance from the nearest pharmacy.
The practice has a comparable proportion of registered patients (58.3%) who are of working age when compared to the CCG and national averages of 56.7% and 62% respectively. It has a lower percentage (20.4%) of elderly patients over 65 years of age than local average which is 25.3% 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 fourth 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 three male GP Partners who are contracted to provide General Medical Services (GMS) and who are registered with the CQC for the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The Partners are supported by a Practice Manager, an Assistant Practice Manager, two Practice Nurses, two Health Care Assistants (HCAs), an IT Manager, six dispensing staff and four additional admin and reception staff.
Out of hour’s services are not provided as these are provided by Kernow Health whose contact details are available in the practice and on the website.
Updated
30 December 2019
We carried out an announced focussed inspection at Brannel Surgery on 14 November 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 responsive?
- 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?
- Are services caring?
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, responsive 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.
We rated all population groups as good.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Consider ways in which to improve communication between staff and management.
- Ensure that all staff complete equality and diversity training.
- Ensure that all staff receive regular appraisals.
- Consider ways to ensure that cervical screening rates meet Public Health England targets.
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