Consett Medical Centre

Updated 13 January 2023

Consett Medical Centre is registered with CQC to provide Primary Medical Services to patients from 1 location:

• Station Road, Consett, DH8 5YA.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; maternity and midwifery services; family planning; and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS North East and North Cumbria integrated care board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to about 17400 registered patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Opening times are 8.30 am to 8.00pm Monday to Wednesday and 8.30am to 5.30pm on Thursday and Friday.

Information taken from Public Health England places the area in which the practice is in the fifth decile. In general, people living in less deprived areas tend to have lesser need for health services. The practice’s age distribution profile is in line with national averages.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices and is a member of a primary care network (PCN). Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 13 January 2023

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Consett Medical Centre on 22 and 25 November 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Requires Improvement.

The key question ratings were:

Safe – Requires Improvement

Effective – Good

Caring – Not inspected rating of Good carried forward from last inspection

Responsive - Requires Improvement

Well-led – Good

At our previous inspection in January 2016 we rated the practice as Good overall. They were rated as Good for the key questions. We did not inspect the key question of Caring during this inspection, therefore it remains rated as Good

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This was a focused inspection to respond to risk and follow up on concerns that were raised with us.

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 with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Staff questionnaires
• 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.

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 Requires Improvement overall and Requires Improvement for the Key Questions of Safe and Responsive.

We found that:

• The practice did not always provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. There was a significant backlog of clinical tasks within their clinical records system that required attention.
• The practice was working hard to ensure backlogs created by COVID-19 were being reduced quickly and safely.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The practice had recently recruited a new practice manager and reviewed how the practice was led. Their aims were to promote the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• People were not satisfied with the way they accessed services the practice offered. The practice had recognised that people found accessing their services challenging and had introduced new measures to address this issue.

We found a breach of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

Though we found no further breaches of regulation the provider should:

• Continue to develop and improve access to its services for patients.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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