Wigmore Medical Centre

Updated 11 November 2022

The registered provider is Wigmore Medical Centre.

Wigmore Medical Centre is located at 114 Woodside Road, Wigmore, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 0PW. The practice 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 Wigmore Medical Centre, 114 Woodside Road, Wigmore, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 0PW only, where the provider delivers regulated activities.

Wigmore Medical Centre has a registered patient population of approximately 4,599 patients. The practice is located in an area with a lower than average deprivation score.

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

The practice staff consists of two GP partners (both female), one salaried GP (male), one practice manager, one assistant manager, one practice nurse (female), one phlebotomist as well as reception and administration staff. The practice also employs locum staff via an agency.

The practice works with other practices in the local area as part of a Primary Care Network (PCN) to help meet patients’ needs. This includes the sharing of some staff across practices in the PCN.

Wigmore Medical Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to deliver the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; family planning; maternity and midwifery services; treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Updated 11 November 2022

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

The full comprehensive report can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Wigmore Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we carried out this inspection:

We carried out an announced inspection at Wigmore Medical Centre on 18 October 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.

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:

• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• 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:

We have rated this practice as Good overall.

• The practice’s systems, practices and processes helped keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• Risks to patients, staff and visitors were assessed, monitored and managed effectively.
• Published results showed the practice was performing above local and England averages for breast cancer screening and in line with local and England averages for all other cancer screening.
• Published results showed the practice was performing better than local and England averages when prescribing some hypnotics and in line with local and England averages when prescribing some antibiotics.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• Staff treated patients with kindness, respect as well as compassion and helped them to be involved in decisions about care and treatment.
• Feedback about the practice from the national GP patient survey was positive and in line with local and England averages.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There were processes to support good governance and management.
• The practice involved patients, staff and external partners to help ensure they delivered high-quality and sustainable care.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue with plans to monitor practice compliance with all safety alerts.
• Continue to monitor reviews of patients with long-term conditions to help ensure best practice guidance is followed at each review.
• Continue to monitor the effectiveness of action to help ensure patients with commonly undiagnosed conditions receive all relevant care and treatment.
• Continue to monitor the effectiveness of action to help ensure patients prescribed medicines that require regular blood test monitoring are receiving such tests in line with best practice guidance.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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

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