The Ridgeway Surgery

Updated 5 April 2017

The Ridgeway Surgery is located in Astwood Bank and provides primary medical services to patients at the Astwood Bank surgery and the branch surgery in Feckenham. The practice is located at the north of the area that it covers which includes Upper Bentley, Broughton Hackett, The Lenches and Coughton.

The practice has four GP Partners (two male and two female), a practice manager and a dispensary manager. There are two practice nurses, three healthcare assistants, one phlebotomist (a specialised healthcare assistant who collects blood from patients), two dispensers and reception and administrative staff. There are approximately 5,200 patients registered with the practice. The practice is open from 8.20am to 1pm and 2pm to 6.30pm on a Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The practice closes at 12 noon on a Tuesday. Telephones are answered by receptionists when the surgery is closed at lunchtime. Patients can access the service for appointments from 8.20am and on line booking is also available. The practice offers telephone appointments with a GP on Tuesdays and Fridays from 8am to 8.30am. There is a walk in surgery at Feckenham branch surgery on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 2.15pm and 3.30pm. The doors to the surgery are open from 2pm. The practice treats patients of all ages and provides a range of medical services. The Ridgeway Surgery has a higher percentage of its practice population in the 45 to 85 and over age group than the England average.

The Ridgeway Surgery provides 19 GP sessions and 10 nurse sessions each week. At the branch surgery there are three GP and eight healthcare assistant sessions provided each week.

The Ridgeway Surgery is a dispensing practice. They are able to dispense medicines to patients in a rural area who do not have a chemist within one mile (1.6km) radius of their home address. Medicines are also dispensed from their branch surgery.

The Ridgeway Surgery has a General Medical Services contract. The GMS contract is the contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities.

The practice provides a range of services including specific ones for patients with respiratory problems, diabetes and heart disease. It offers child immunisations, influenza and travel vaccinations (excluding yellow fever) and maternity and family planning services. The practice also provides a minor surgery and phlebotomy (taking blood) service.

The Ridgeway Surgery does not provide an out-of-hours service to its own patients. Outside the hours they are open they advise patients to contact the NHS 111 service. This information was available at the practice and on the practice website.  

Updated 5 April 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a focused desk based inspection of The Ridgeway Surgery on 20 February 2017 to check that action had been taken since our previous inspection on 24 November 2014. At the inspection in November 2014, the practice was rated as good overall but rated as requires improvement for providing safe services.

We found that the practice required improvement in this area due to areas of practice which needed to be addressed to ensure safe care and treatment. This was because the practice needed to:

• Review the practices protocol and procedures as to what constitutes a significant event and how they are recorded and effectively managed by the practice.

• Review the system for recording safeguarding information for vulnerable adults and children to

ensure that information is recorded consistently in patients’ records.

• Ensure that the recruitment policy covers clinical staff and makes reference to all of the information required.

On 20 February 2017 we reviewed the information the practice submitted to us to ensure that they had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection of The Ridgeway Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Our key findings for this inspection were as follows:

The provider had made improvements:

• The practice had reviewed their recruitment policy to include all of the information required to be obtained as required under Regulation 19, Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
• They had reviewed the records for patients at risk and ensured safeguarding alerts were in entered on all records.
• The practice had ensured that all significant events were entered through the significant event system to ensure they were managed appropriately and effectively.

The practice is now rated good for providing safe services.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 19 February 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. There were emergency processes in place and referrals were made for patients whose health deteriorated suddenly. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 19 February 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who failed to attend appointments or clinics. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations. Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. We saw good examples of joint working with midwives and health visitors. Emergency processes were in place and referrals were made for children and pregnant women whose health deteriorated suddenly.

Updated 19 February 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and urgent access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 19 February 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs for this age group.

Updated 19 February 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. It carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia.

The practice offered reviews of all patients with severe and enduring mental health conditions with at least annual reviews of their physical, social and mental health, medicines and revision of their agreed care plan. In-house counselling was also available at the practice. Patients with dementia were also offered an annual review.

Patients newly diagnosed with dementia were referred to Kidderminster Early Dementia Service, which was provided by the local community trust. The Admiral Nurse (specialist dementia nurse) service was available to support families in caring for relatives affected by dementia. It also provided an educational and consultancy role to professionals. Patients could self refer to the Admiral Nurse based in Redditch or this could be done by the GP. Staff had received training on how to care for people with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 19 February 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability. They had carried out annual health checks for people with a learning disability. They had offered longer appointments for people with a learning disability. The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. It had told vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.