Beeches Green Surgery

Background to this inspection

Updated 17 July 2017

Beeches Green Surgery is located near to the centre of Stroud, a market town in Gloucestershire and has good transport links. The practice has a slightly higher than average patient population in the above 40 years age group and lower than average in the under 40 years age group. The practice is part of the Gloucester Clinical Commissioning Group and has approximately 8500 patients. The area the practice serves is urban, semi-rural and rural and has relatively low numbers of patients from different cultural backgrounds. The practice area is in the low range for deprivation nationally and has a lower than average number of patients (0.5%) who are unemployed compared to the local average of 5%. The practice figures for those living with a long term condition is similar to both local and national averages.

The practice is managed by seven GP partners (three female and four male).The practice is supported by one salaried female GP, a nurse practitioner, one practice nurse, two health care assistants and an administrative team led by the practice manager. Beeches Green Surgery is a training practice providing placements for GP registrars and medical students.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Morning appointments are available between 9am and 11am every morning and afternoon appointments 4pm - 6pm every afternoon. Extended hours appointments are offered from 7.30am on Monday mornings and between 6.30pm and 7pm on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. In addition to pre-bookable appointments that could be booked up to four weeks in advance, urgent appointments were available for patients that needed them.

When the practice is closed patients are advised, via the practice website and telephone answer machine that all calls will be directed to the NHS 111 service. Out of hours services are provided by Care UK.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract to deliver health care services.

Beeches Green Surgery is registered to provide services from the following location:

Beeches Green Health Centre, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 4BH

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 17 July 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Beeches Green Surgery on 24 November 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement because breaches of regulation relating to the safe and well led provision of services were identified. The full comprehensive report on the 24 November 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Beeches Green Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 20 June 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 24 November 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

The practice had ensured that identified risks relating to infection control and fire safety had been actioned and managed.
All recommended training had been undertaken by staff.
Policies had been reviewed and updated relating to chaperone duties.
Learning from significant events were being shared to drive improvement in a timely manner.
The practice had focussed on improved collaborative working with the patient participation group.

The area where the provider should improve:

Review systems and processes to encourage carers to attend for an annual health check.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice