Valens Medical Partnership

Updated 6 October 2023

Valens Medical Partnership is located in Morpeth and is 1 of 8 sites operating in Northumberland We visited the main site at Morpeth and Cramlington site as part of our inspection.

The provider is registered to deliver the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures; maternity and midwifery services; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and, surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers a General Medical Services contract (GMS) to a patient population of over 51000 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider Primary Care Network (PCN).

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is on the 4th decile (4 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday and provides extended hours on a rotational basis across its sites. The practice offers a range of appointment types including telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Out of hours services are provided by 111.

Updated 6 October 2023

We carried out an announced inspection at Valens Medical Partnership on 26 July and 9 August 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring - Not inspected, rating of Outstanding carried forward from previous inspection.

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Good

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection in response to information of concern we received.

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.

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.
• The practice regularly reviewed its access arrangements for patients
• The practice used clinical audits to improve care and treatment.
• The practice dealt with complaints in a timely manner and learned from them.
• 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:

• Continue to develop solutions to provide better access to their patients.
• Continue to develop medicines stewardship including their response to important safety alerts.
• Continue to improve their monitoring of patients with long term conditions such as asthma.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services