We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Orchard Medical Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about The Orchard Medical Centre, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Orchard Medical Centre on 10 May 2016. The overall rating for the practice was good with the safe domain rated as requiring improvement. The practice needed to improve their systems in infection control, emergency medicines, vaccines and blank prescription management. The provider sent us an action plan following our inspection detailing how they would improve. The full comprehensive report from the May 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Orchard Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
We undertook an announced focused inspection on the 1 February 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their action plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach of regulation 17, good governance in which areas of concern had been identified during our previous inspection on the 10 May 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and the improvements the provider had made since our last inspection.
Overall the practice is now rated as good for all domains.
Our key findings were as follows:
The practice had two areas where they should improve following the inspection carried out in May 2016. We also reviewed these areas at this inspection.
In May 2016 we reported the practice should ensure that all required clinical staff were trained in accordance with best practice guidance for the insertion of intrauterine devices. We found on this inspection that the GP partners had reviewed who was appropriately trained to carry on providing this service to patients following the new best practice guidance from the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. There were now two GPs who had the appropriate training and were identified as appropriate to carry out these procedures.
In May 2016 we reported the practice should improve on ensuring their systems for monitoring risks to patients, such as infection control and medical emergencies, were fully embedded within the staff team and were completed consistently. We found procedures were now embedded and carried out consistently within the staff team.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We had previously inspected this GP practice in August 2014 as part of our new inspection programme pilot to test our approach going forward.
The outcome from inspection Aug 2014 was that the provider should:
Identify a lead for infection prevention and control.
Review their appointment process to improve patient’s access to appointments with GPs.
Review their systems to ensure timely referral to other services.
Introduce a patient participation group (PPG) to seek feedback from patients about the way the practice runs.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Orchard Medical Centre 10 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good, however, we found some areas of concern within the safe domain which is rated as requires improvement.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
The areas where the provider must make improvement are:
The practice must ensure procedures are fully embedded bychecking their implementation, specifically in relation to the system for ensuring the safe storage of medicines which required refrigeration, prescription management,the process of audit of infection control measures and emergency equipment checking records.
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
All practice staff should follow best practice guidance for updating training for the insertion of intrauterine devices.
The practice should ensure that clinical results are reviewed in a timely way following receipt by the practice.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
The Orchard Medical Centre is located in Kingswood within South Gloucestershire. The South Gloucestershire population is comparable to the England average with a high proportion of the population being between 40 and 49 years old. The Orchard Medical Centre provides a service to approximately 13700 patients.
The practice team consists of one managing partner and five GP partners along with three practice nurses, three specialist nurses, three healthcare assistants and a reception and administration team.
We spoke with the South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and to Healthwatch South Gloucestershire about the practice before our visit. We visited The Orchard Medical Centre, Macdonald Walk, Kingswood, Bristol, BS15 8NJ.
We spoke to patients and some patients left written feedback in advance of the inspection. They gave us positive feedback about the practice and staff but they told us appointments with GPs were difficult to make. They told us they were pressurised to see the specialist nurse but preferred to see a GP.
We found that the practice was well-led and provided caring, effective, and responsive services to a wide range of patient population groups.
Patients had a named GP to oversee their individual care and treatment requirements delivered in the practice.
Patients with long-term conditions were helped by GPs and nurses to manage their conditions.
Pregnant women were able to have their antenatal care at the practice as well as their postnatal care following delivery.
The practice operated extended opening hours for patients of working age.
The practice worked with a local drug project to help patients with regimes to become drug free.
Patients with mental health care needs were registered at the practice.
Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.