Background to this inspection
Updated
22 November 2018
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on 3 May 2017. The overall rating for the practice was good with requires improvement in safe. Breaches of legal requirements were found and requirement notices were served in relation to safe care and treatment and recruitment.
We carried out an announced focused inspection at Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on 3 January 2018 to check that the previous breaches had been met. At that inspection we rated the practice good overall with requires improvement in safe. Breaches of legal requirements were found and a requirement notice was served in relation to good governance. The full comprehensive report on the May 2017 and January 2018 inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice is a single-handed GP practice. It is located in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent and provides care and treatment to approximately 2,545 patients of all ages. The practice is a member of the NHS Stoke-On-Trent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides regulated activities from this location only. It holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. A GMS contract is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the commonest form of GP contract.
The practice is in an area of high deprivation being in the second most deprived decile in the country. Demographically 27.6% of the practice population is under 18 years old which is higher than the national average of 20.8% and 10.7% are aged over 65 years which is below the national average of 17.1%. The practice supports a diverse community with 75% white British and 25% of people from other nationalities. The percentage of patients with a long-standing health condition is 55.8% which is comparable with the national average of 53.7%.
The practice staffing comprises of:
- One male GP.
- A female practice nurse.
- A health care support worker
- A practice manager.
- Four members of administrative staff working a range of hours.
GP telephone consultations are available for patients who are unable to attend the practice within normal opening hours. During the out-of-hours period services are provided by Staffordshire Doctors Urgent Care, patients access this service by calling NHS 111.
The practice offers a range of services for example, immunisations for children, child development checks, travel vaccinations, lifestyle advise and management of long-term conditions such as diabetes. Further details can be found by accessing the practice’s website at www.drsinhaandpartners.co.uk
Updated
22 November 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall. (In January 2018, the practice was previously rated Good, with requires improvement in providing safe care and treatment.)
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? - Good
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on 3 May 2017. The overall rating for the practice was good with requires improvement in safe. Breaches of legal requirements were found and requirement notices were served in relation to safe care and treatment and recruitment. We carried out an announced focused inspection at Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on 3 January 2018 to check that the previous breaches had been met. At that inspection we rated the practice good overall with requires improvement in safe. Breaches of legal requirements were found and a requirement notice was served in relation to good governance. The full comprehensive report on the May 2017 and January 2018 inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr AK Sinha's Medical Practice on 6 November 2018 to follow up on breaches of regulations.
At this inspection we found:
- The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
- Staff had completed appropriate safeguarding training. Safeguarding policies did not support staff in safeguarding patients at risk of abuse from female genital mutilation. The practice had not reconciled their children’s safeguarding register with the health visiting team.
- Systems for acting on Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts had been put in place.
- Staff recruitment checks had improved following our previous inspection.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines. However, guidelines for the treatment of patients with gestational diabetes or patients with gout needed to be reviewed.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they could access care when they needed it.
- There was continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation and the practice engaged with local Clinical Commissioning Group initiatives.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Reconcile safeguarding registers with the health visiting team. Update safeguarding policies and procedures to support staff in safeguarding patients at risk of abuse from female genital mutilation.
- Increase the percentage of medication reviews for patients on repeat prescriptions.
- Develop processes to embed historic Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency alerts into the practice’s medicine monitoring systems.
- Review guidelines for the treatment of patients with gestational diabetes or patients with gout.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.