Archived: The Sidings Medical Practice

Updated 17 January 2022

The Sidings Medical Practice is located in Boston at;

Sleaford Road Medical Centre

Boston West Business Park

Boston

PE21 8EG

The provider is a partnership and 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

surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers services under an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contract to a patient population of about 17,050. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The provider is Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices known as a Primary Care Network.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fifth decile (five of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

The percentage of the practice’s patients aged 65 and over is 16.6% (2020), lower than the CCG average of 23.1% and England average of 17.5%.

Life expectancy for males (78) and for females (81.7) is below the England average of 79.5 for males and 83.1 for females.

The percentage of the practice’s patients aged 18 and under is 21.3%, higher than the CCG average of 18.8% and the England average of 20.4%.

The practice’s deprivation score in 2019 is 23.7, higher than the CCG average (19.9) and the England average (21.7). The deprivation score has increased since 2010.

In 2020, 49.8% of the practice’s population had a long-term health condition; lower than the CCG average of 57% and England average of 52.4%.

According to the Office of National Statistics, Boston has the highest percentage of patients registered from Eastern European countries (14.25%), much higher than the national average of 2.4%. The next highest, Northampton, has 12.46%.

Clinical care is provided by a team of nine salaried GPs, supported by six advanced nurse practitioners, eight practice nurses, two pharmacists and six healthcare assistants. They are supported by a team of reception, administration and housekeeping staff.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, many GP appointments had been telephone consultations but now there were increased opportunities for patients to choose face to face consultations.

Extended access is provided where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.

Updated 17 January 2022

We carried out an announced inspection of The Sidings Medical Practice on 9 and 10 November 2021. This was the first inspection of this provider at this location.

Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe – Requires Improvement

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection. The location had not been previously inspected.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• 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 Good overall.

The practice is rated as good overall. The practice is also rated as good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. The service has been rated as requires improvement for providing safe services.

The service is rated as requires improvement for providing safe services because:

• Pathology results were not always dealt with expeditiously.
• The practice did not always follow guidance for the monitoring of patients in receipt of high risk medication.

We also found that:

• 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 adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 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.
• Staff told us it was good place to work.

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

• Develop and improve the process to deal with incoming pathology results.
• Improve the process for the monitoring of patients in receipt of high-risk medication.
• Implement a system to monitor the prescribing competence of non-medical prescribers and regular review of their prescribing practice.
• Continue their work to improve uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical screening.
• Continue their work to improve patient satisfaction in the areas identified in the GP Patient Survey.
• Develop a system to gather patient feedback that is also accessible to people whose first language is not English.
• Implement a system whereby learning from complaints is documented and shared with staff where appropriate.

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