The Beaumont Practice

Updated 21 December 2022

The Beaumont Practice operates from the Hornsey Rise Health Centre, Hornsey Rise, London N19 3YU. It shares the purpose-built premises, which is managed by the local trust, with other healthcare providers. There are good local bus services.

The practice provides NHS services through a General Medical Services (GMS) contract to approximately 3000 patients. It is part of the NHS Islington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which is made up of 33 general practices. The practice is registered with the CQC to carry out the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures;
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and
• Maternity and midwifery services.

The patient profile for the practice has an above average working age population, between the ages of 20 and 49 and fewer than average older patients, aged over 65. The locality has a higher than average deprivation level. Over a third of the practice area population is of a black and minority ethnic background.

The practice’s clinical team is led by a female GP partner, supported by two female salaried GPs. The clinical team is complemented by two female practice nurses and a male healthcare assistant. The administrative team is comprised of a finance manager, who is also a non-clinical partner, practice manager and administrative staff.

GP appointments are available on Mondays between 9.30am-12.30pm and 3.30pm-6.30pm; Tuesdays and Wednesdays 9.30am-12.30pm and 3.30pm-7.30pm. Thursdays 9.30am-2.30pm; and Fridays 10.30am-4pm. The nurses work Mondays 9am-1pm; Thursdays 11am-1pm;and Fridays 9am-4pm. Healthcare assistant appointments are available Wednesdays 9.15am-3.30pm and Fridays between 9.15am-12.15pm.

Routine appointments with GPs can be booked up to six weeks in advance. Appointments in the morning are 10 minutes long; those in the afternoon are 15 minutes. Double appointments may be booked if patients wish to discuss more than one issue. Patients can book appointments online if they have previously registered to do so. Same-day urgent appointments are available. Video and Telephone consultations are available daily and the GPs also make home visits to see house-bound patients.

In addition to the extended hours operated by the practice, the CCG has commissioned the “IHub” extended hours service, operating until 8pm on weekdays and between 8am and 8pm at weekends and bank holidays at three sites across the borough. Appointments can be booked by patients contacting their own general practice. There is also a walk-in service available to all patients at a central location. The practice has opted out of providing an out of hours service. Patients calling the practice when it is closed are connected to the local out-of-hours service provider. There is information given about the out-of-hours service provided on the practice website.

Updated 21 December 2022

We carried out an announced focused inspection at the Beaumont Practice on 16 November 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Responsive - Not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Well-led - Good

We previously inspected the practice on 27-30 April 2021 and rated safe as inadequate; effective as requires improvement; well-led as requires improvement; caring as good and responsive as good. This gave the practice an overall rating of requires improvement. Because of the safety concerns we identified, we served a warning notice under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as the provider was failing to comply with the relevant requirements of Regulation 12, (1), Safe care and treatment, of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We also served a requirement notice relating to Regulation 17, Good Governance, of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We carried out a warning notice follow up inspection on 11 August 2021 and saw confirming evidence the practice had taken sufficient action to address our concerns regarding the breaches under Regulation 12 safe care and treatment, and we deemed the practice as having met the requirements of the warning notice. At this inspection we were satisfied the breaches identified under Regulation 17 Good Governance had also been addressed, and we deemed the practice as having adequately met the requirement notice.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for the Beaumont Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this focussed inspection to follow up on the concerns and breaches of regulation we identified in the April 2021 inspection.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• 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 found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. There was now safe and adequate management and monitoring of patients prescribed high-risk medicines and drug safety alerts were being appropriately actioned.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. We were now assured patients prescribed high-risk medicines for long-term conditions and mental health conditions had received all necessary blood tests within appropriate timescales prior to prescribing as per national guidelines. We were also assured clinicians had assessed the blood test results and satisfied themselves it was safe to prescribe. Although the uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical screening was still not meeting national targets, we were satisfied the practice had sufficient mitigation for this and were doing all that was possible to improve.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. The practice now had appropriate governance arrangements and systems and policies in place to ensure the safe management of patients prescribed high-risk medicines, and the dissemination and actioning of drug safety alerts.

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

• Continue with efforts to create a new Patient Participation Group.
• Continue with efforts to improve the uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical screening.
• Continue with quality improvement ensuring regular two cycle audits are being carried out.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services