Tessa Jowell GP Surgery

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Tessa Jowell GP Surgery on 24 August 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe - requires improvement

Effective - requires improvement

Caring - good

Responsive – good

Well-led - requires improvement

The practice was previously inspected under a different provider at a different address. Following our previous inspection on 8 September 2016, the practice was rated good overall and requires improvement for providing caring services. The current provider took over the service on 1 September 2020. This is the first rated inspection under the current provider.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Tessa Jowell GP Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• 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.

We have rated this practice as Requires Improvement for providing safe services because:

• Patients prescribed medicines requiring monitoring were not always managed in line with best practice guidance.
• Safety alerts were not always dealt with in line with national guidance.
• Staff did not always have the appropriate authorisations to administer medicines via the correct use of Patient Group Directions.

We have rated this practice as Requires Improvement for providing effective services because:

• Patients with long-term conditions were not always monitored in line with best practice guidance.

We have rated this practice as Requires Improvement for providing well-led services because:

• The practice had not identified and managed all risks relating to the management of; patients prescribed medicines requiring monitoring; safety alerts; and patients with long-term conditions.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Complaints were used to improve the quality of care.

We found two breaches of regulation. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take action to improve access in ways which best suit patients’ needs. The provider should ensure actions are embedded, sustained and regularly reviewed to determine the impact of these actions.
• Take steps to improve uptake of cervical cancer screening and childhood immunisations.

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 Health Care