Old Town Surgery

Updated 20 November 2023

Old Town Surgery is located in Swindon at:

Old Town Surgery

Curie Avenue

Okus

Swindon

Wiltshire

SN1 4GB

Tel: 01793 616057

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Wiltshire Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 9250. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, Wyvern Health Partnership, which is a registered Primary Care Network (PCN), comprised of Merchiston Surgery, Lawn Medical Centre, Hawthorn Medical Centre and Priory Road Medical Centre. This is led by a board of 8 members, with representation from each practice. Patients registered at these practices are also part of the PCN and are able to benefit from services offered including; a Care Home and Frailty Service; Dietician services and a Social Prescriber team.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the second highest decile (nine of 10). The higher the decile, the less deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 89.4% White, 6.5% Asian, 2.4% Mixed, 1.3% Black and 0.4% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages.

There is a team of 6 GPs of which 3 are GP partners. The practice has a clinical team of 3 nurses and 3 pharmacists, of which one pharmacist supports urgent and acute patient triage. The team are assisted at the practice by a team of 12 reception/administration staff. The practice manager and deputy practice manager provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open between 8am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by the PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 20 November 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Old Town Surgery between 29 September – 04 October. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

This is the first inspection since the new provider registration in December 2020. Following our previous inspection in February 2019 under the previous provider registration, the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out a comprehensive inspection undertaking a site visit and remote clinical searches to review:

• Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led key questions.

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.
• Staff feedback surveys.

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 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.
• 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.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Implement formal mechanisms to record clinical supervision for non-medical prescribers.
• Improve the uptake of cervical cancer screening to eligible patients.
• Take action to risk assess access to the stock of medicines and the criteria for the types of medicines stored at the practice including for emergencies.

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