The Deepings Practice

Updated 29 April 2022

The Deepings practice is located in Market Deeping at:

Godsey Lane

Market Deeping

Peterborough

PE6 8DD

The practice has a branch surgery at:

The Glinton Surgery

3 / 4 The Green

Glinton

Peterborough

As part of our inspection we visited The Deepings practice, onsite pharmacy and the branch practice at Glinton.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice offers services from both a main practice and a branch surgery. Patients can access services at either surgery.

The practice is situated within the Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 24000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice also provides minor surgery operations in a purpose-built level three surgical theatre offering community referrals.

The practice is part of primary care network of eight local GP practices.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the highest decile (10 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 97.8% white, 0.9% Asian, 0.3% Black, 0.9% Mixed, and 0.1% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages.

There is a team of seven GP partners and six salaried GPs who provide cover at both practices. The GPs are supported at the practice by advanced nurse practitioners and nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions at both the main and branch locations. The team also includes health care assistants and a dispensing team. There is an operations and facilities officer, finance officer and IT technical support team. The business manager is based at the main location and provides managerial oversight. There is a medical records and admin team, medical secretaries, finance and information and reception team. The practice is an approved training practice and provides training to GP registrars and medicals students as part of their ongoing training and education.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered a choice of either the main GP location or the branch surgery.

Extended access is provided by the practice, where late evening appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.

Updated 29 April 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at The Deepings practice on 22 March 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Requires Improvement.

The ratings for each key question are:

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Requires improvement

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 02 December 2014 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 The Deepings practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to gain assurances, following concerns that were raised about the provision of services by the practice.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit

Our findings

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 overall

We found that:

• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Some patients found accessing the practice by telephone difficult.
• Vacant clinical posts impacted on the availability of appointments.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The majority of staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles. However, not all staff were up to date with essential training.

We found two areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice contacted local schools during the heightened period of the pandemic to offer support and advice relating to COVID-19. A GP partner from the practice met with local school leadership members virtually to give a presentation on covid-19 symptoms and clinical decisions regarding the health of children and when to seek advice. The GP offered an email advice service where the local schools could email directly with any questions.
• The practice had invested in an automated collection machine for medications. This was located in the car park of the practice and allowed patients to access their medication at a time that was convenient for them. Patients reported positive feedback stating it was more convenient for them to collect their prescriptions at a time to suit them for example before or after work. The machine also decreased footfall into the practice reducing infection control risks and staff were able to dispense medications quickly.

Whilst we found no other breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to monitor staffing levels at the practice.
• Continue to develop engagement with patients to notify them of actions taken to address access concerns.

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