West Meads Surgery

Updated 25 July 2022

West Meads Surgery is in the town of Bognor Regis at:

West Meads Surgery

2-8 The Precinct

Bognor Regis

West Sussex

PO21 5SB

The practice is situated within the West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 7,700. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of the Regis Primary Care Network, which is made up of five local practices.

Information published by the UK Health Security Agency shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth highest decile (six out of 10). The higher the decile, the less deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 97% white, 1.6% asian,1% mixed, 0.4% black and 0.2% other.

There are two partners; one is a GP and one is a paramedic. There are six salaried GPs. The practice has a team of four practice nurses, four health care assistants and three paramedics. The GPs are supported by a practice manager, an administrative manager, a reception manager and a team of reception and administration staff.

For more information on opening times and services provided visit: https://www.westmeadssurgery.co.uk/

Extended access is provided locally by a federation of GPs, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the NHS 111 service where they will be given advice or directed to the most appropriate service for their medical need.

Updated 25 July 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at West Meads Surgery on 6th and 9th June 2022 Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - not inspected (Good, carried over)

Responsive – inspected, access questions only (Good, carried over)

Well-led - Good

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good or Outstanding, to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach. This inspection was a comprehensive inspection that focused on the following key questions:

• Safe
• Effective
• Responsive (access questions only)
• Well-led

How we carried out the inspection.

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, considering 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 with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included: -

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider.
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.
• A staff questionnaire.

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

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice had an active patient participation group and patient views were acted on to improve services and culture.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• Staff felt supported by their managers and that their well-being was prioritised.
• Staff had the training and skills required for their role.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

• Ensure staff vaccination records of all staff are complete, and appropriate risk assessments are undertaken where necessary.
• Continue to improve systems and structures for assuring the competence of staff in advanced clinical roles and ensure comprehensive records are kept.
• Review all patients on dependency forming medicines and implement plans to reduce prescribing.
• Ensure that historical safety alerts are included within current systems and processes.

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