Bewdley Medical Centre

Updated 13 September 2022

Bewdley Medical Centre is located in the centre of Bewdley at:

Address Dog Lane

Town Bewdley

DY12 2EF

The practice has a list size of approximately 15,600 patients. The practice is situated within the NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), from July the CCG is known as Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS). This is part of a contract with NHS England.

The practice is situated in an area with average levels of deprivation. Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the 6th (six of 10) with one being most deprived and 10 being least deprived. The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. The practice has a lower than national average number of children and young people. It has higher than the national average number of adults who have reached retirement age and older aged people. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 98.2% White, 0.9% Mixed, 0.7% Asian, 0.1% Black and 0.1% Other.

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

The practice is part of a provider organisation The Wyre Forest Health Partnership who are registered with CQC which includes four other locations which make up wider network of GP practices across Worcestershire

Where applicable, patients can be seen at alternative sites who are part of the Wyre Forest Health Partnership.

There is a team of eight GP Partners and four Salaried GPs who can provide cover at other locations within The Wyre Forest Health Partnership the other services within the partnership were not inspected as part of this inspection. The practice has a team of five advanced nurse practitioners working for the practice offering a variety of services including nurse led clinics for long-term conditions The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of pharmacists, health care assistants, reception and administration staff. The practice manager and assistant practice manager are based at the main location to provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open during the following hours:

Monday 7 am- 6:30 pm (7:00 am - 8:00 pm extended access)

Tuesday 8 am – 6:30 pm

Wednesday 8 am – 8:00 pm (6:30 pm - 8:00 pm extended access)

Thursday 8 am– 8:00 pm (every other week extended access until 8:00 pm)

Friday 8 am– 6:30 pm

Saturday – 8 am – 11 am (once per month extended access)

The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by Bewdley Medical Centre, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Bewdley Medical Centre as well as other sites located within the Wyre Forest Health Partnership throughout the week.

Updated 13 September 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Bewdley Medical Centre on 13 July 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Requires Improvement.

The ratings for each key question are:

Safe - Requires Improvement

Effective – Requires Improvement

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 6 October 2017, 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 Bewdley Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection included a comprehensive review of information and a site visit where we inspected safe, effective and well-led care. During our inspection we looked at one area of providing responsive care: Access to the service, this was not rated, and we did not identify any concerns with regards to access to the service.

How we carried out the inspection.

This inspection included a comprehensive review of information and a site visit where we inspected safe, effective and well-led care. During our inspection we looked at one area of providing responsive care: Access to the service, this was not rated, and we did not identify any concerns with regards to access to the service.

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, considering the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently. Therefore, as part of this inspection we completed clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussed the findings with the provider. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

The inspection also included:

• Requesting and reviewing evidence and information from the service
• A site visit
• Conducting staff interviews
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider

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 have rated this practice as Requires Improvement overall

We found that:

• The practice did not routinely operate effective systems to ensure the appropriate and safe use of medicines, including medicines optimisation. After reviewing a sample of clinical records for patients with long term conditions and or prescribed high risk medicines we found evidence where reviews were overdue.
• We found records where blood results were not within the recommended timeframe; therefore, repeat prescribing were not routinely managed in line with national prescribing guidelines.
• Safety systems and risk assessments were in place in most areas; however, fire drills were not completed regularly within a 12 month period.
• The practice regularly reviewed and acted on serious events and incidents, these incidents were reviewed as part of the wider partnership and learning points were shared amongst each location with the aim to improve safety at each location.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• GPs did not routinely follow up patients who had received treatment in hospital or in out of hours services.
• Systems were in place to monitor patient access, using information from patient feedback and complaints the practice implemented a triage system where patients were able to speak with a doctor directly through the practice booking process.

We found one breach of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Strengthen systems and policies to ensure they are effective and functioning as intended.
• Ensure risks to patients and staff are mitigated.
• Ensure that oversight including policies and procedures are operating as intended.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care