Headquarters

Updated 16 August 2022

Background to Headquarters

Headquarters is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to provide the treatment of disease, disorder or and injury and diagnostic and screening procedures.

The provider of this service is GP Healthcare Alliance which is a group of 18 GP practices in five primary care networks (PCNs) in Castle Point, Rochford and Rayleigh in Essex, working together to provide healthcare services for practices and patients. All member practices remain independent but work collaboratively to deliver and improve healthcare within the area.

The administrative records for the provider’s other two locations, Weekend Service (Rayleigh) and GPHA Clinical Site are held at Headquarters. All services provided by the provider are co-ordinated from this site. No patients are treated at this location.

The following services / contracts managed from Headquarters include:

Extended Access GP Service

Coronavirus Vaccination Programme

Human Resource function for five Primary Care Networks (PCNs)

Private Clinical Services including ear irrigation, cryotherapy, weight loss injections and others were in the planning stages.

How we inspected this service

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 included:

• Evidence from the provider
• A short site visit
• Interviews with staff
• Staff questionnaires via email
• Review of internal data

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 16 August 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. This is the first inspection for this service.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Heaquarters on 18 July 2022 as part of our comprehensive inspection programme.

At this inspection we saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The provider’s approach to service delivery had integration at the heart of service development. They worked in coordination with others to make sure they were meeting the needs of the local population. The service was a key component of wider system integration and formed a part of the clinical commissioning group’s overall provision. They were agile in working across the sector to set up new services, in response to patient needs and the wider health economy. They made sure they listened to the patient voice when developing or improving services.
• There was a systematic and integrated approach to monitoring, reviewing and providing evidence of progress. Plans were consistently implemented and had a positive impact on quality.
• Quality improvement was an essential component of the provider’s strategy. We found they had comprehensive quality and improvement systems, supported by a thorough approach to audit. There was a strong focus on improvement within the service by seeking out and embedding new ways of providing care and treatment.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services