We carried out a review of the data available to us about Boughton Medical Group on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Boughton Medical Group, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Boughton Medical Group on 18th October 2016.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
Access to the service was monitored to ensure it met the needs of patients.
We saw areas of outstanding practice:
The practice had been identified as a beacon practice for on-line patient access by NHS England and had made a video for use throughout English GP practices to encourage patients to register for this service. The practice had worked together with their Patient Participation Group (PPG) to develop this service and promotional material for on-line access. The practice had approximately 26% of their patient population registered for on-line access. The practice and the PPG had also linked up with local services to provide computer training and set up email accounts to enable patients to use on-line access.
The practice had developed and recently implemented its own autism protocol. This acted as an aide memoire to staff when booking appointments for patients with suspected or diagnosed autism and suggested reasonable adjustments to be made when attending the practice. It also stressed the importance of good communication with patients and their families or carers.
The practice website and newsletter had sections specifically for young people which included information on common health questions, abuse prevention, sexual health and smoking and links to health and social care support organisations.
The practice had been involved in a number of community engagement projects in the last two years. For example, members of the clinical and management team collaborated with a local supermarket to deliver lifestyle advice and carry out patient health checks in a specially adapted vehicle owned by the supermarket and located in its car park. The practice team visited a local pre-school to explain to children about what to expect when visiting their GP. The practice also promoted student health by providing information about the practice and the services offered at the Fresher's Fayre.
Two nurses from the practice had undertaken a study between 2012 and 2014 with the aim of assessing the effectiveness of early diagnosis of dementia and how this impacts on individuals and carers. The conclusions and recommendations included reducing waiting times for diagnosis and that the benefits of earlier diagnosis should continue to be promoted. As a consequence of the findings the practice had been involved in and developed services. Opportunistic screening for dementia took place. Following on from this the practice also offered an in-house dementia care assessment led by a nurse. This involved a 30 minute assessment of the patient and symptoms, followed by a memory assessment. If further investigations were needed the patient was referred on to specialist services. The practice had been part of the nurse led Vulnerable Housebound Adult Service pilot. The aim of this pilot was to improve the experience and outcomes for housebound, vulnerable, frail and elderly patients by advanced care planning and management. Dementia screening and review was included within this service provision. This included a full holistic assessment, an assessment of the patient’s carer to ensure they were receiving sufficient support and sign posting for support service services and referrals to health and social care services as necessary.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
Ensure there is a daily record of the minimum and maximum thermometer readings for vaccine fridges.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Boughton Medical Centre is based close to the centre of Chester and is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities:
The practice opened from 8.00am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday and had a patient register of almost 12,000 people. Before our inspection we left comment cards for patients to complete and drop into a box for our review. We found a number of cards were completed and all but one response was positive. A negative comment was made regarding difficulties in securing an appointment with a GP.
We spoke with six patients attending the practice on the day of our inspection, who shared their views on how the practice people’s healthcare needs. They told us they found nursing staff and GP’s caring and compassionate. We talked with five people from the Patient Participant Group. The members of the group told us they thought the practice was very well-led and that all staff were knowledgeable, caring towards patients and that they were always treated with dignity and respect.
We found patients of working age had appreciated the Saturday flu clinics that had been run in the past year. At that time they could visit the surgery on a none working day to take up the offer of this vaccine.
The practice met the requirements of the Equality Act. Access to the building was wheelchair user friendly and all internal doorways were sufficiently wide enough for wheelchairs to pass through. A hearing loop system for people with impaired hearing or deafness was available and a member of staff was trained in the use of British Sign Language, for people who used this form of communication.
The surgery had five nurse practitioners who specialised in particular areas of health care and condition management. Older patients visiting the practice on the day of our inspection told us they valued the blood taking clinic which was held at the practice.
A variety of clinics were run for pregnant women, new born babies and parents of very young children. All immunisations for babies and young children were delivered from the practice.
The practice operated safely and had robust systems in place to ensure patient treatment followed best practice guidelines. Governance processes were in place that enabled the practice to comply with regulations and to deliver safe health care.