Abbey Surgery

Updated 18 December 2019

Abbey Surgery is located within the town of Tavistock, in Devon. Abbey Surgery is a long established surgery serving Tavistock and the surrounding area. The practice benefits from good transport links for patients living outside of town. There were 14,400 patients on the practice list and the majority of patients are of British white background. The practice population had a higher than national average of patients over 65 years old with 28% in this age group compared to 17% nationally. The practice also has a branch surgery at Bere Alston. During our inspection we visited the site in Tavistock and did not visit the branch surgery at Bere Alston.

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, surgical procedures and family planning. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice is managed by eight partners, six male and two female and supported by five Associate GP’s as well as five practice nurses three of whom hold the prescribing qualification, four health care assistants (HCA), a phlebotomist and an administrative team led by the practice manager.

Abbey Surgery is a training practice providing placements for GP registrars and medical students.

The practice is able to dispense medicines to those patients on the practice list who lived more than one mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy premises.

The practice is open between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 12 noon on a Saturday. The telephone lines are available between 8.30am and 6.30pm. The practice offers triage appointments each week day and pre-bookable appointments are available between 8.30am and 11.30am and 2.30am and 6pm. Outside of these times patients are advised to telephone NHS 111 to seek advice.

Updated 18 December 2019

We carried out an announced focussed inspection at Abbey Surgery practice on 22 October 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 focused on the following key questions:

Is the service effective?

Is the service well led?

Because of the assurance received from our review of information we carried forward the ratings for the following key questions:

Is the service safe?

Is the service caring?

Is the service responsive?

The practice was previously inspected in June 2016 and in the report published in August 2016.

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 and good for all population groups.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• 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.

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

Updated 18 December 2019

Updated 18 December 2019

Updated 18 December 2019

Updated 18 December 2019

Updated 18 December 2019

Updated 18 December 2019