Background to this inspection
Updated
11 September 2020
The Gratton Surgery is located at Gratton Close, Sutton Scotney, Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 3LE. The practice has a dispensary which serves patient who live more than mile away. Due to its rural location the practice has limited public transport links. The practice has a branch site located at South Wonston Surgery, 67 Downs Rd, South Wonston, Winchester, Hampshire SO21 3EW.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the following Regulated Activities from both sites;
- Diagnostic and screening procedures,
- Family planning,
- Maternity and midwifery services,
- Surgical procedures,
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The Gratton Surgery is situated within the West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to approximately 6,750 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The provider is a partnership of five GP partners who registered with the CQC in February 2013. At the time of this desk-based review, the practice was in the process of making changes to its partnership following the retirement of one of its partners and the identification of a new partner. The practice employs two practice nurses, two healthcare assistants/phlebotomists, a practice manager and a team of administrative and receptionist staff. The dispensary was staffed by a dispensary manager and team of dispensers. A delivery driver for the dispensary service was self-employed but attached to the practice to provide this service. The practice is part of a local primary care network with five other GP practices as well as the local GP federation.
There are higher than the local average number of patients under the age of 18, and fewer patients aged over 65 than the local average, but more than the national average. The National General Practice Profile states that approximately 97% of the practice population is from a White background with the remaining 3% of the population originating from black, mixed or other non-white ethnic groups. Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as ten, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 83 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 87 years compared to the national average of 83 years.
Updated
11 September 2020
We previously carried out an announced focused inspection at The Gratton Surgery, on 9 January 2020 as part of our inspection programme. The inspection was carried out following an annual regulatory review of information available to us. The inspection looked at the Safe, Effective and Well-led domains. We rated the practice as Good overall, however we found a breach of regulations and rated Safe as Requires Improvement. You can read the full report by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Gratton Surgery on our website at .
We were mindful of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what type of inspection was necessary and proportionate, this was therefore a desk-based review. On 11 August 2020, we commenced the desk-based review to confirm that the practice had carried out its plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach of regulations that we identified at our previous inspection in January 2020.
We found that the practice is now meeting those requirements and we have amended the rating for this practice accordingly. The practice is now rated Good for the provision of Safe services. We previously rated the practice as Good for providing Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led services.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we reviewed the information sent to us by the provider
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider.
We have rated Safe as Good because:
- The practice demonstrated improvements to the monitoring system and process for inbound messages, for example test results, referrals and other correspondence. A protocol had been implemented which stipulated daily and weekly checks by clinical staff and the practice had identified a non-clinical staff member who completed this task to ensure all test results were actioned appropriately.
- All staff had a current record of completing their mandatory infection prevention and control training module, as expected by the practice.
- The practice demonstrated it had improved its monitoring processes of its blank prescription stationery in line with national guidance.
- The practice had reviewed the risks to patients accessing their prescriptions remotely and had updated its risk assessment in view of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic accordingly.
Although not part of the practice’s previous regulatory breach, the practice demonstrated it had also made improvements since our last inspection in the areas of:
- Providing sepsis awareness training to all its receptionists, with a further plan to deliver the same training to all its non-clinical staff in due course.
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