St Werburgh Medical Practice

Updated 1 March 2022

The registered provider is Aspire Medical Health which is part of a primary care at scale organisation that delivers general practice services at three registered locations in England.

St Werburgh Medical Practice is located at 98 Bells Lane, Hoo, Rochester, Kent, ME3 9HU. The practice is situated within the NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and has a general medical services contract with NHS England for delivering primary care services to the local community.

As part of our inspection we visited St Werburgh Medical Practice, 98 Bells Lane, Hoo, Rochester, Kent, ME3 9HU and The Healthy Living Centre, Balmoral Gardens, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4PN, where the provider delivers registered activities. The provider also delivers registered activities at Stoke Village Hall, Mallard Way, Lower Stoke, Rochester, Kent, ME3 9ST.

St Werburgh Medical Practice has a registered patient population of approximately 10,456 patients. The practice is located in an area with a higher than average deprivation score.

There are arrangements with other providers to deliver services to patients outside of the practice’s working hours.

The practice staff consists of three GP partners (two male and one female), two salaried GPs (one male and one female), one physician associate (female), two clinical pharmacists (one male and one female), one nurse manager (female), one advanced nurse practitioner (female), three healthcare assistants (one male and two female), one team leader, one reception supervisor, nine primary care navigators, one primary care co-ordinator supervisor and five primary care co-ordinators. The practice also employs locum staff when necessary and practice staff are supported by the primary care at scale organisation Aspire Medical Health management staff.

St Werburgh Medical Practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; maternity and midwifery services; and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The provider is in the process of adding the regulated activity of family planning to their registration.

Updated 1 March 2022

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at St Werburgh Medical Practice on 25 and 27 January 2022 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014. The overall rating for the practice was Good.

We undertook this inspection at the same time as CQC inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in Kent and Medway. To understand the experience of GP providers and people who use GP services, we asked a range of questions in relation to urgent and emergency care. The responses we received have been used to inform and support system wide feedback.

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 in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using the telephone / video conferencing.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.

Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based 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.

Our findings:

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? - Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We rated the practice as Good for providing safe services because:

• The practice’s systems, practices and processes helped to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• Risks to patients, staff and visitors were assessed, monitored and managed effectively.
• The arrangements for managing medicines helped to keep patients safe.

We rated the practice as Good for providing effective services because:

• Patients’ needs were assessed, and care as well as treatment were delivered in line with current legislation, standards and evidence-based guidance.
• The practice had a programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.

We rated the practice as Good for providing caring services because:

• Staff treated patients with kindness, respect and compassion.
• Staff helped patients to be involved in decisions about care and treatment.
• The practice respected patients’ privacy and dignity.

We rated the practice as Good for providing responsive services because:

• The practice organised and delivered services to help meet patients’ needs.
• People were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• Complaints were listened to and used to improve the quality of care.

We rated the practice as Good for providing well-led services because:

• There was compassionate and inclusive leadership at all levels.
• There were processes and systems to support good governance and management.
• The provider had systems to continue to deliver services, respond to risk and meet patients’ needs during the pandemic.
• The practice involved the public, staff and external partners to help ensure they delivered high-quality and sustainable care.
• There were systems and processes for learning, continuous improvement and innovation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Revise mental health review activities and the prescribing of lithium to help ensure all elements of assessments are completed and recorded in line with best practice guidance.
• Continue with activities to encourage relevant patients to attend the practice to receive cervical screening.
• Continue to implement action plans to help improve patient satisfaction scores

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.