Priory Road Medical Centre

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Priory Road Medical Centre on 22 September 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

The ratings for each key question are as follows:

Safe – Good

Effective – Good

Caring – Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Good

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to provide the practice with their first rating since they registered with CQC in December 2021.

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

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 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 rated the practice as Good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services because:

• The practice’s systems, practices and processes kept people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• There was an effective to the safe care and treatment of patients prescribed medicines that required routine monitoring and those with long-term conditions.
• Recruitment checks were carried out in accordance with regulations and practice policy.
• Risks to patients, staff and visitors were being routinely assessed, monitored and managed effectively.
• Systems and processes for managing and responding to significant events were effective.
• The provider carried out quality improvement activity.
• Staff treated patients with kindness, respect and compassion.
• Staff worked together and with other organisations to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Complaints were listened and responded to and used to improve the quality of care.
• Staff helped patients to be involved in decisions about care and treatment.
• Leaders had taken action to ensure the quality, safety and performance of the service.
• The practice had processes for managing issues, risks and performance.
• Leaders were aware of all required improvements to ensure the quality, safety and performance of the service.
• The practice’s processes for managing risks, issues and performance were effective.
• There were systems to support governance.

We saw the following areas of outstanding practice:

• Leaders modelled and encouraged compassionate, inclusive and supportive relationships among staff so that they felt respected, valued and supported.
• We saw that there was a culture of collective responsibility and positive relationships between staff and teams, conflicts and sharing of lessons learnt/improvements were discussed constructively and effectively.
• There were processes for providing all staff at every level with the development they needed, including high-quality appraisal and career development conversations.

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