Old Town Surgery

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