Sheringham Medical Practice

Updated 21 September 2018

Sheringham Medical Practice provides healthcare services to approximately 9,400 patients in Sheringham, Norfolk and outlying villages under a General Medical Service (GMS) contract. The practice is a dispensing practice, dispensing medicines to those patients requiring the service.

There are two GP partners who are supported by three salaried GPs. There are five nurse practitioners, three practice nurses and three healthcare assistants. A team of five dispensary trained staff support the dispensing of medicines. A team of 15 administration and reception staff support the practice manager and business manager. The business manager had applied to become a partner of the practice and this was in process at the time of the inspection.

The practice is a training practice for GP registrars (qualified doctors who are training to be GPs).

The practice is open between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours are offered between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on a Monday. If the practice is closed, patients are asked to call the NHS111 service or to dial 999 in the event of a life-threatening emergency. Out of hours services are provided by Integrated Care 24 Ltd.

The practice has a lower number of patients aged 0 to 18 years and a higher number of patients aged over 65 years and over compared to the local and national average. The deprivation score is below the England average. Income deprivation affecting children and older people is below national averages. Male and female life expectancy in this area is in line with the England average at 80 years for men and 85 years for women.

Updated 21 September 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sheringham Medical Practice on 9 January 2018. The overall rating for the practice was good, with a requires improvement rating for providing safe services. We issued a requirement notice against regulation 17 as there were out of date emergency medicines and consumables in the practice and the process in place for the management of patient safety alerts was not effective.

We also identified areas the practice could improve including documentation relating to children who did not attend appointments, and the system for managing patients with diabetes during and following pregnancy.

The full comprehensive report on the January 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Sheringham Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 9 August 2018 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 9 January 2018.

This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good, with a good rating for providing safe services.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had carried out a comprehensive review of safeguarding systems and processes and implemented changes to the way missed appointments are assessed and recorded for children and vulnerable patients.
• The practice had reviewed and implemented a robust new process for checking and recording emergency medicines and equipment.
• Processes for receiving, reviewing, acting on and monitoring safety alerts had been reviewed and improvements made.
• The process for managing diabetes during and after pregnancy had been thoroughly reviewed and systems put in place to improve identification, monitoring and recording of patients with diabetes during pregnancy and following pregnancy.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Updated 8 February 2018

Updated 8 February 2018

Updated 8 February 2018

Updated 8 February 2018

Updated 8 February 2018

Updated 8 February 2018