The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Norton Medical Centre

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Billingham Road, Norton, Stockton On Tees, County Durham, TS20 2UZ (01642) 745350

Provided and run by:
Norton Medical Centre

Important:

We served a warning notice on Norton Medical Centre on 8 November 2024 for Failure to comply with Regulations 12 and 17  of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Norton Medical Centre failed to establish and maintain a safe system of triage for service users, and lacks oversight of significant event monitoring. Norton Medical Centre have until 10th February 2025 comply with these regulations.

 

We served a Notice of Decision on Norton Medical Centre on 15th October 2024 for failure to comply with Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.  Norton Medical Centre failed to provide assurance there was a safe system in place to triage service users safely.

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Norton Medical Centre is located in Stockton on Tees: Norton Medical Centre, Billingham Road, Norton, Stockton on Tees, County Durham TS202UZ. The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities, diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury, family planning and surgical procedures. The practice is situated within the Tees Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) contract to a patient population of over 16,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. There is a team of 10 permanent GP’s, 1 Pharmacist, 2 Advanced Nurse Practitioners and 6 Practice Nurses who are supported by a team of 2 Health Care Assistants and 2 apprentice Health Care Assistants. Supporting the clinical team there is a Practice Manager, Operations Manager, Office Manager, General Manager, I.T Manager, Payroll Manager and 5 team leads of different administrative teams. Practice opening hours are from 08.00 – 18.00 Monday to Friday. The practice is closed on Thursdays between 12 noon and 14:00 for 'house keeping'. The practice offers a range of appointments including, telephone consultation, video consultation and face to face appointments. Enhanced access appointments are available via the Primary Care Network on weekday evening and Saturdays. When the practice is closed, patients can access out of hour’s services by telephoning NHS 111. We found two breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment and governance. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. We also took urgent enforcement action under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and imposed conditions on the providers' registration.

15/16 and 30 November 2022

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out an announced inspection at Norton Medical Centre on 15/16 and 30 November 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

The ratings for each key question are:

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring - Not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Responsive – Requires improvement

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 23 September 2015, the practice was rated as good overall and in all five key questions was the practice safe, effective, caring and well led. The key questions, was the practice responsive, was rated as requires improvement. This was the practice’s only previous inspection.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection carried out in line with our inspection priorities.

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
  • 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
  • Staff questionnaires

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 experienced poor access however, the provider was committed to exploring ways at addressing this.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Staff were appropriately trained to carry out their roles.
  • Staff maintained the necessary skills and competence to support the needs of patients.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • 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 that a risk assessment is carried out for all staff that are not required to complete a DBS check.
  • Continue to monitor and reduce summarised patient notes.
  • Continue to monitor and seek improvements for appointments and access in line with new and emerging technologies.

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

23 September 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Norton Medical Centre on 23 September 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
  • The practice were proactive in improving prescribing within the practice.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, the practice were proactive in managing health and safety.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training and development needs had been identified and planned.
  • Urgent appointments were available the same day but not necessarily with a GP of choice.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about treatment.
  • The practice made good use of audits and had shared information with other practices to promote better patient outcomes.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management team. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice employed a pharmacist to improve the practice of the repeat prescribing process. The outcome showed that patient safety was improved and the annual prescribing costs reduced. This project has been shared with local practices and presented nationally.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should make improvements.

  • Ensure the positioning of hand gel in the children’s play area is safely out of the reach of children.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice