Background to this inspection
Updated
10 September 2019
Dr MJJ and Dr SR Beckers is located in Charmouth, a rural village on the coast of West Dorset. Dr MJJ and Dr SR Beckers is known locally as The Charmouth Medical Practice. The practice is part of NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
The provider is registered to provide the following regulated activities.:
Maternity and midwifery services
Diagnostic and screening procedures
Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
Surgical procedures
The practice provides care to approximately 2,300 patients living in Charmouth and the surrounding villages under a General Medical Services contract. The practice is based in an area of low deprivation and low unemployment compared to the national average. A total of 41% of the practice population are over 65 years. This is higher than the CCG average of 24% and national average of 17%. Less than 1% of the practice population have an ethnic minority background.
The practice has two GP partners, one of whom is female and one is male. The practice also employs two salaried GPs, one male and one female. In addition, there are two practice nurses and a small team of managerial, reception and administrative staff.
The practice is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6.30pm. Extended hours appointments are available until 7pm every Monday and Tuesday evening. The practice had an arrangement with a local practice to provide cover for urgent appointments every Thursday afternoon from 2pm.
Phone lines were open and answered during this time, but no pre-bookable appointments were available to patients during this time.
The practice has opted out of providing out of hours services to their patients. When the practice patients are advised to contact the out of hours services via the NHS 111 service.
We inspected the only location on this inspection, based at:
The Charmouth Medical Practice
Littlehurst Surgery
The Street
Charmouth
Dorset
DT6 6PE
Updated
10 September 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr MJJ & Dr SR Beckers on 16 July 2019 as part of our inspection programme.
We decided to undertake an inspection of this service following our annual review of the information available to us. This inspection looked at the following key questions effective, caring and well led.
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 for providing effective and well led services because:
- 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 organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
We rated all population groups as good.
We rated the practice as outstanding for providing caring services because:
- Feedback from patients was consistently positive and was higher than local and national averages.
- There was a strong person-centred culture.
We saw an area of outstanding practice:
One of the GP partners invited 40 patients to take part in a low carbohydrate healthy fat diet from February 2018 to July 2019.
Preliminary results showed that:
- 67% of patients in all groups experienced an overall reduction in their HbA1c levels. (A specific blood test which measures the levels of glucose in the blood over the previous three month period.)
- 78% lost weight
- Five patients reduced or stopped their diabetic medicines
- 25% of diabetic patients no longer had a HbA1c reading in the diabetic range.
- All patients who participated said that they felt energetic, well and found the weight reduction was relatively easy.
The practice had a recommendation at our previous inspection to maintain the security of prescription stationary. The practice had changed their processes to ensure that all printer prescription paper was removed from printers at the end of each day when the practice was open. In addition, locks had been fitted to printers.
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