The Ridge Medical Practice

Updated 1 February 2023

The Ridge Medical Practice independent doctors service operates from:

Westwood Park Diagnostic Treatment Centre, Swift Drive, Off Cooper Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD6 3NL.

Services are also delivered at 2 other sites:

The Ridge Medical Practice, Buttershaw Surgery, Royds Healthy Living Centre, 20 Ridings Way Off The Crescent, Buttershaw, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD6 3UD.

And:

The Ridge Medical Practice, Great Horton Surgery, Cousen Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 3JX.

We visited all these sites as part of the inspection.

The service is commissioned by Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership through an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contract, and is known locally as the Bradford South and West Musculoskeletal Service. The service specialises in the triage, assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions. The service sees approximately 3,500 patients each year, all of whom are referred by their NHS GP. The services available to patients over the age of 12 years are:

• Diagnostic and screening services
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• Surgical procedures.

The service is delivered by GPs with enhanced extended roles, GPwERs, (GPwERs were previously called GPs with a Special Interest). The administrative side of the service is managed by the extended care team, based within the main site of The Ridge Medical Practice, Cousen Road, Great Horton, Bradford, BD7 3JX. The service works in conjunction with Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioners (APPs). However, the APPs provide treatment under a contract commissioned by the local NHS Trust, and so were not reviewed as part of this inspection.

Services operate at:

Westwood Park Diagnostic Treatment Centre – clinical sessions Thursday 8am to 5pm.

Buttershaw Surgery – clinical sessions Monday 8.30am to 11.30am and Tuesday and Friday 8.30 to 3.30pm.

Great Horton Surgery – hosts the extended care administration support team and operates Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, in addition some clinical sessions are also delivered on an irregular basis at the surgery when required, to meet the needs of the service.

All the sites delivering services were purpose-built and accessible to those with a physical or sensory disability. Parking is available at all sites.

How we inspected this service

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.

Before visiting the service’s locations, we looked at a range of information that we hold about the service. We reviewed information submitted by the service in response to our provider information request, this included completed staff questionnaires. During our visit, we interviewed staff, reviewed documents and clinical records, and made observations relating to the service and the locations it was delivered from.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 1 February 2023

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Ridge Medical Practice independent doctors service on 12 and 13 January 2023. The service was inspected because whilst it had previously been inspected, it had not been previously rated by CQC.

The service specialises in the triage, assessment and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.

A non-clinical partner is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

We reviewed feedback from patients following consultations and treatment. The responses showed high levels of patient satisfaction with the services received.

Our key findings were:

• The service was provided on a referral basis from the patient’s own NHS GP, and was accessible to people who chose to use it.
• Waiting times were minimised and within agreed targets.
• Patient treatment was safely managed.
• The service had systems in place to identify, investigate and learn from incidents relating to the safety of patients and staff members.
• There were policies, processes and practices in place to safeguard patients from abuse.
• Information regarding patients was comprehensive and was effectively shared with other health and care providers as appropriate.
• Patient outcomes, complaints and incidents were evaluated, analysed and reviewed as part of quality improvement processes. However, we saw that clinical audit had lapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Staff had the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to deliver the care and treatment offered by the service.
• There was a clear leadership structure, with governance frameworks which supported the delivery of quality care.
• The service encouraged and valued feedback from patients, and used this for quality improvement purposes.

We saw the following outstanding practice:

The provider had established a weekly multidisciplinary team meeting with the neurosurgery team from the local hospital NHS trust. This provided a forum for advice and guidance, allowed the advance discussion of potential neurosurgery referrals, and shortened patient waiting times.

The area where the provider should make improvement is:

• The provider should re-establish clinical audits processes within the service.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services