Gossoms End Surgery

Updated 8 December 2023

Gossoms End Surgery is located on the first floor of a 3 storey building at Victory Road, Berkhamsted Herts, HP4 1DL. The building is shared with other health care services.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity, and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 3,160. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices within the Dacorum Primary Care Network (PCN). PCNs are groups of practices working together to focus on local patient care.

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

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 2.5% Asian, 94.8% White, 0.6% Black, 1.8% Mixed, and 0.3% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages.

The practice has a team of 2 GP partners (1 male and 1 female), 1 practice nurse and a trainee GP assistant. They provide clinical services at the practice. The practice has access to long term locum GP cover for consistency.

The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of administration and reception staff. The practice manager provides managerial oversight.

Patients of Gossoms End Surgery are also supported by staff through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). These include 2 clinical pharmacists, a paramedic, a physician associate, a health and wellbeing coach and 2 physiotherapists who are employed by and support the whole PCN.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. Appointments are available from 8.30am to 12pm and 3pm to 5pm, with extended times offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 7.30am to 8am. The practice offers a range of appointment types including face-to-face and telephone consultations. Home visits are available for patients who are unable to go to the practice.

Patients can access additional GP Appointments through the Dacorum Extended Access service. When the practice is closed, patients can access support, treatment, and advice from the NHS 111 service.

Updated 8 December 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection) at Gossoms End Surgery on 5 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 12 May 2016, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

How we carried out the inspection/review

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.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness, respect and compassion and involved them in decisions about their care.
• 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.

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

• Continue to strengthen the systems of accountability to support good governance and management, including processes to monitor and record staff recruitment and training.
• Embed identified improvements in processes for assessing and monitoring patients and medicines, including emergency medicines and equipment held by the practice and review of patient group directions (PGDs), in line with guidance.
• Continue to take actions to improve cervical screening uptake and to establish an active Patient Participation Group (PPG).

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 Health Care