Two Rivers Medical Centre

Updated 10 March 2025

Date of Assessment: 22 April 2025 to 7 May 2025.

Two Rivers Medical Centre is a GP practice delivering General Medical Services to approximately 29835 people. The National General Practice Profile show 86.2% of people registered are White, 6.1% Asian, 3.7% Mixed, 2.4% Black and 1.6% Other. The practice has a higher than England average of older people, lower than England average of working age adults, and is in line with the England average for young people registered at the practice. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data shows deprivation within the practice population is in the 8 decile (8 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the population is relative to others. This assessment considered the demographics of people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery. Where relevant, further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.

As a result of this assessment, we rated the practice as requires improvement in safe and well led, and good in effective, caring and responsive. This gave the practice a new overall rating of requires improvement. Improvements were needed for the safe management of people’s medicines and good governance. People did not always receive appropriate monitoring and review of their prescribed medicines. The provider’s governance systems did not always identify, effectively monitor, and address areas for improvement we found during this assessment. However, we found there was a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. People were involved in assessments of their needs. Arrangements were in place to respond to people’s individual needs and leaders continued work to improve equity in access and reduce health and care inequalities. Practice leaders supported staff wellbeing. Leaders were visible and knowledgeable and supported staff to develop in their roles.

We found 2 breaches of regulation, one for safe care and treatment and one for good governance. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

Updated 10 March 2025

The provider had information on our Give Feedback on Care (GFC) process in their waiting room. They had requested this was added to the practice website, although this was not easy to find. We reviewed people’s feedback from GFC, Healthwatch Suffolk and the NHS website. Feedback was mainly positive in relation to the attitude of clinical staff and clinical care and treatment. Feedback was mixed regarding access to appointments, particularly by telephone and the attitude of some non-clinical staff.

We spoke with representatives from care homes. Overall feedback was positive, particularly in relation to access, care and treatment received, referral management, staff knowledge, and their kind and caring approach. We received mixed feedback regarding the management of medicine reviews.

We reviewed the National GP Patient Survey data, published in July 2024. For access indicators, 1 was below and 1 in line with the England average. All of the 5 indicators for people’s experience were in line with the England average. The practice collected feedback from the friends and family test. In the previous 12 months, 77% of people responded good or very good to their experience of the service.

There was a newly re-established Patient Participation Group (PPG) who represented the views of people who used the service. Representatives from the PPG gave examples of change following people’s feedback. For example, the telephone system had been changed so people could request a call back and a new appointment system was being implemented in May 2025.