Bridport Medical Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

Safe – this means we looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

At our last assessment, we rated this key question as Good. At this assessment, the rating remains rated Good.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good service.

Staff were encouraged to raise concerns when things went wrong. They told us significant events, complaints and examples of feedback were shared and discussed during regular staff meetings. Staff felt there was an open culture and understood their duty to raise concerns and report incidents. Leaders provided examples of how incidents were investigated and resolved.

There were policies and processes in place to record, investigate and act on incidents and complaints. These were discussed in monthly governance meetings and minutes made available to staff who were unable to attend. There was a system to record and investigate complaints, and when things went wrong, staff apologised and gave people support in line with the duty of candour. Learning from incidents and complaints resulted in changes that improved care for people.

The service worked with people and healthcare partners to establish and maintain safe systems of care, in which safety was managed or monitored. They made sure there was continuity of care, including when people moved between different services. The service was supported by care co-ordinators and a social prescriber within the local primary care network (PCN). These roles were effective to ensure people’s care transitioned to other local healthcare services such as secondary care providers. In particular, for those with complex health and care needs, such as arranging appropriate support via service referrals. There were systems for processing information relating to newly registered people. The service worked with other providers to deliver shared care and when people moved between services. Referrals and test results were managed in a timely way. Policies and guidance supported workflow and pathways for appointments, referrals, records and correspondence. The service had a system for processing new information and summarisation of notes.

Staff told us they were aware of their role to monitor and manage care when people moved between services, such as after referral to secondary care, or admission to hospital. A review of the service’s clinical system, which formed part of this assessment, indicated people’s test results were being managed in a timely manner to support transition through services. For example, people received coordinated care, with clear communication between the service and community nursing teams as part of multidisciplinary care planning.

The service had carried out an audit in relation to referral appropriateness, communication pathways, and inter-service working with the local minor injury unit (MIU). This was conducted due to inappropriate referrals to MIU services. As a result of initial findings, the service took action to improve awareness about referral pathways, because of this there was a noted reduction in inappropriate MIU referrals being made. Staff induction packs and locum guidance was reviewed to ensure there were clearer referral pathways.

The service worked with people and healthcare partners to understand what being safe meant to them and the best way to achieve that. They concentrated on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm and neglect. The service shared concerns quickly and appropriately.

There were designated safeguarding children and adult leads at the service. There were multi-disciplinary meetings where safeguarding issues were discussed, and these were attended by clinical and management staff. External stakeholders were invited to safeguarding meetings where relevant, such as community mental health teams and health visitors. Systems were in place to appropriately refer people to the local authorities and information was shared amongst community teams where required. Safeguarding and chaperoning policies were in place and accessible to staff.

A mixture of clinical and non-clinical staff members had chaperone responsibilities as part of their role. Those staff members had completed Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks to ensure they would be appropriate to undertake this role.

We reviewed a sample of people’s records as part of our remote clinical searches and saw care records noted how people were to be supported to remain safe. There were processes to follow-up people who frequently did not attend appointments to evaluate any safeguarding risks, such as those who were vulnerable, frail or children.

The service worked with people to understand and manage risks. They provided care to meet people’s needs that was safe, supportive and enabled people to do the things that mattered to them. The service had maintained emergency equipment and staff were aware of procedures including recognising a deteriorating person and were trained on relevant actions to take. People were advised on risks related to their condition and actions to take if their condition worsened.

The service had a dedicated workflow team comprised of administrative staff which supported correspondence and communications. Staff told us urgent tasks were raised to GPs based on information escalated by Out of Hours and NHS 111 services, particularly, for people who were required to be seen in-hours by the service based on their symptoms and clinical presentation.

Leaders demonstrated the arrangements for reviewing abnormal results were prioritised to ensure people were followed up in a timely way. For example, we observed the service’s pathology clinical system mailbox and identified abnormal results were assigned either to the requesting clinician or to the duty GP for review on the day and correspondence was picked up via the GP partners to prevent delays to care and treatment. Staff were able to describe their roles and responsibilities to manage risks associated with workflow and correspondence for people’s records.

The service detected and controlled potential risks in the care environment. They made sure equipment, facilities and technology supported the delivery of safe care.

Premises and equipment were well-maintained, including regular portable appliance testing, equipment calibration and fire safety equipment servicing. The service had a business continuity plan which was monitored and reviewed regularly.

Fire safety measures were in place such as fire alarm testing; fire extinguisher servicing and gas safety check, schedules were detailed in the fire safety policy. The service had carried out a fire risk assessment across all service sites in September 2025 and were in the process of completing the identified remedial actions to an agreed deadline, such as installing an inward opening fire door at the Pound Piece site and the installation of 2 new fire exit doors at Tunnel Road site to ensure compliance with the Fire Safety Act 2021.

The service had retained and stored all Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSSH) risk assessments for all cleaning products stocked, alongside relevant Safety Data Sheets (SDS).

The service made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who received effective support, supervision and development. They worked together well to provide safe care that met people’s individual needs.

All recruitment and Human Resource (HR) records were kept in-line with service policy and Schedule 3 requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We carried out a review of the provider’s recruitment checks in relation to 3 members of staff and information was available and up to date in line with service policy.

Staff received a formal induction relevant to their role and responsibilities and were supported through ongoing appraisals. There were systems to monitor staff training compliance, and we noted all staff had completed mandatory training in line with service policy.

Staff could discuss clinical queries in relation to their medicine prescribing or care and treatment planning with leaders who they said had an ‘open door’ policy. We noted there were daily slots available for clinicians to seek support with the on-the-day duty GP. The service had named supervisors for the medical students at the service under their education placements. Staff told us the service ensured staff were supported in their roles. Supervision and development discussed through appraisals. Regular clinical supervision and audit of non‑medical prescribing supported safe decision‑making and helped reduce the risk of prescribing errors. The service had demonstrated examples of how cases had been reviewed by a GP supervisor and discussed the quality of care to ensure prescribing was in line with national guidelines.

There were staffing arrangements to ensure in the event of an emergency, the risk of unsafe service was mitigated and prevented lone working.

The service assessed and managed the risk of infection effectively. They detected and controlled the risk of it spreading and shared concerns with appropriate agencies promptly.

The service had a designated infection, prevention and control lead and all staff had received relevant training. Risk assessments and audits were completed in relation to cleaning standards and hand hygiene. Cleaning schedules were in place and followed with audits of performance reviewed with the external cleaning contractor. Clinical waste arrangements were effective to ensure safe storage and appropriate labelling in line with infection prevention and control national guidelines.

A water safety risk assessment was carried out in September 2025. This identified low levels of Pseudomonas bacteria at the Pound Piece site. The service took immediate action by following its business continuity plan. The service carried out monthly checks of water temperatures to help prevent the growth of harmful bacteria, in line with health and safety guidance. The service also had a water safety policy in place which explained how risks were managed, including more detailed temperature checks across all rooms to ensure the system was worked effectively.

The service made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences. They involved people in planning, including when changes happened. The service held appropriate emergency equipment and emergency medicines. The service maintained appropriate fridge temperature records where vaccines were being stored and had taken appropriate action when fridge temperatures were outside of safe ranges. Staff managed medicines safely at the two dispensing sites and involved people in planning any changes to their care, such as prescriptions. Patient Group Directions (PGD) and Patient Specific Directions (PSD) were in place which relevant staff worked to when administering immunisations. Prescription stationery was logged and stored securely.

The service routinely reviewed prescribing data in relation to support medicine optimisation. Prescribing of antibacterial medicines were in line with national averages whilst medicines used to manage moderate to severe pain as well as medicines used to treat anxiety and insomnia were below national averages. The service had clear systems and processes to support stewardship, including audit activity, prescriber feedback and the use of clinical guidelines and decision‑support tools. These arrangements supported clinicians to prescribe medicines safely and appropriately and helped to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms that cause disease are no longer affected by antimicrobial medicines. The development of resistance can be accelerated by factors such as the inappropriate use of antibiotics, making infections more difficult to treat and increasing the risk of complications.

Leaders were able to demonstrate that there was an effective system to ensure safety alerts were acted upon in a safe way for people. During our remote clinical searches, we found people who were affected by medicine safety alerts were contacted to inform them on the risks and prescriptions were reviewed appropriately. We also found people who had been prescribed medicines used to treat inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis had received the appropriate monitoring. This had been either carried out by the service or under shared care arrangements with secondary care providers to demonstrate safe and care treatment.

However, we identified not all people, who had been prescribed medicines used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension), had been appropriately monitored and reviewed in line with national guidelines. For example, we noted 201 people out of a total of 3,609, the equivalent of approximately 5% of total of people prescribed these medicines had not always received the required blood and blood pressure monitoring set out in national guidelines. We reviewed the clinical records of 5 of those people and identified 2 of them were overdue renal blood monitoring, with 1 having abnormal results at the last blood test.

A randomised review of medicine reviews determined that not all records contained qualitative information to inform future care planning in 3 out of the 5 records we reviewed. Despite the service meeting the minimum commissioned target of completed medicine reviews for people in 2025, improved documentation would help to ensure continuity of care and enable clinicians to tailor treatment plans to individual needs.