Archived: Ragstone Road Surgery

Updated 25 July 2022

Ragstone Road Surgery is located in Slough. The service provider is an individual; Dr Hemanthe Kumar and part of the Bharani Medical Centre primary care network.

Address: 40 Ragstone Road Slough Berkshire SL1 2PY We did not visit the practice during this inspection.

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. The practice is situated within the Frimley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to a patient population of about 3,250 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices called a primary care network (PCN).

The practice provides medical services to the local community in Chalvey, Slough. The area has a significantly higher deprivation among its population, compared to the CCG and national averages, with a multiple deprivation index of 25.2 compared to the national average of 21.7. There is a broad ethnic mix among the local population with 83% of people from non-white British backgrounds. The practice has a high turnover of patients due the local area having a transient population. Every year the practice records approximately 400 new patient registrations.

There are four GPs working at the practice, three female and one male. The clinical team includes a practice nurse. The clinical team are supported by a practice manager and a team of administration and reception staff.

The practice has core opening hours between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday with appointments available from 8.30am to 5.50pm daily. Extended opening hours are available every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday when the practice opens for early morning appointments starting at 7.30am. In addition, the practice has offered extended hours appointments every weekday evening between 6.30pm and 8.30pm and every Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 1pm at Bharani Medical Centre. These times have been affected by the pandemic.

The practice has opted out of providing out of hours services to their patients. There are arrangements in place for services to be provided when the practice is closed and these are displayed at the practice, in the practice information leaflet and on the patient website. Occasionally out of hours services are provided during protected learning time by East Berkshire Primary Care Out Of Hours Services Limited , who also provide out of hours service after 6:30pm, weekends and bank holidays. This service is accessed by calling NHS 111.

Updated 25 July 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Ragstone Road Surgery on 19 May 2021 to identify if improvements had been made following our previous inspection. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Ratings:

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring – Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

We previously inspected Ragstone Road Surgery in March 2020 and rated the practice requires improvement. We issued requirement notices to the practice and requested an action plan for improvements.

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

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 included :

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Requesting the practice to complete clinical searches on their patient records system and analysing these findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A full 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 and good in five population groups, but requires improvement for the care of people with long term conditions.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• There had been improvements in the monitoring and delivery of patient care.
• There were systems to identify risks to patients and staff and these were managed to protect people.
• The practice was involved in the national programme of vaccinating the population against Covid-19 and had engaged with the local population to maximise uptake.
• During the pandemic there had been challenges caused by staff shielding and the impact of providing care in different ways.
• Access to services had been diversified to provide alternative means of accessing care for patients.
• Training was monitored and undertaken by staff to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to work with patients.
• There were improved governance structures to ensure quality improvements were made where required and that risks to patients were identified and acted on.

We found one breach of regulation. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way for service users

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