The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

Fountains Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Fountains Health, Delamere Street, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 4DS

Provided and run by:
Fountains Medical Practice

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

This assessment was carried out on 20 and 24 March 2026. Fountains Medical Practice is a GP practice which provides a range of primary medical services from its location, Fountains Health, Delamere Street, Chester, CH1 4DS. The practice delivers services to approximately 4,380 patients under a contract held with NHS England. The provider is registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. A GP specialist advisor was included on the inspection team and they assessed the clinical care and treatment provided for a sample of patients.

We assessed all 5 key questions to establish if the services provided were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. We rated all key questions as good and the service is rated good overall.

Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the 7th decile (7 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. The latest available data with regards to ethnicity of people in the local area showed this was 93% White, 2% Mixed, 3.5% Asian and 1% Black. This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery.

The service had a good learning culture. The premises were clean and well-maintained, and risks had been assessed and mitigated. There were sufficient numbers of staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Staff managed medicines well in relation to prescribing. Care and treatment was provided in line with best practice guidance. People who used the service were treated with kindness and compassion and staff protected their privacy and dignity. Feedback from people who used the service was positive overall. The system for booking appointments was responsive to people’s needs and patient satisfaction with being able to readily access the service was good. Leaders were visible, knowledgeable and supportive, helping staff develop in their roles. Leaders and staff had a shared vision and culture based on listening, learning and continuous improvement.

10 July 2018

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions 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 carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fountains Medical Practice on 10 July 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

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.
  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. Care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
  • There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including health and safety, infection control and dealing with safeguarding. However, some areas should be improved.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
  • The practice reviewed and considered patient views through surveys and feedback.
  • Staff worked well together as a team, knew their patients well and all felt supported to carry out their roles.
  • There was a focus on learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
  • The provider was aware of the requirements of the duty of candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Review the implementation of the revised safeguarding policy to ensure all staff are familiarised with it.
  • Review the system to document safeguarding meetings with relevant stakeholders.
  • Review the health and safety risk assessments to ensure they are up to date for the practice area.
  • Review the system for safety alerts received by the practice to ensure action taken is documented.
  • Review the systems in place to ensure relevant clinical guidance and legislation is implemented across the practice.
  • Review the implementation of an audit plan or programme to include undertaken audits based on local, national and service priorities.
  • Continue the development of an active patient participation group (PPG) in order to extend the range and methods of obtaining patients views to help improvement and develop services.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice