Background to this inspection
Updated
15 October 2019
The Chowdhury Practice is located on the first floor of Oldham Integrated Care Centre, New Radcliffe Street, Oldham, OL1 1NL, in Oldham town centre. Other GP practices are located in the same building. The practice website address is www.thechowdhurypractice.co.uk.
The Chowdhury Practice is open from 8am until 8pm on Mondays and Wednesday and from 8am until 6.30pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
There are two GP partners (one female and one male). There are also three long-term male locum GPs. There are two part-time practice nurses (one currently on maternity leave) and a long-term locum nurse practitioner. The practice manager, who had been with the practice for several years, had recently retired. A new practice manager had started work five weeks prior to our inspection. There were supported by several administrative and support staff.
The practice provides care to approximately 6700 patients under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community. The practice is a member of Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
There are higher than average number of patients under the age of 18, and a slightly below average number of patients between the ages of 65 and 85. The number of patients over the age of 85 is in line with the CCG average and below the national average. The National General Practice Profile states that 56% of the practice population is from an Asian background with a further 5% of the population originating from black, mixed or other non-white ethnic groups. 39% of patients are from White backgrounds. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as one, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 75 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 80 years compared to the national average of 83 years.
Out of hours services are provided by Go to Doc Limited. There is also a walk-in centre in the same building.
Updated
15 October 2019
We first carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Chowdhury Practice on 21 September 2018. The practice was rated as requires improvement overall with the following key question ratings:
Safe – requires improvement
Effective – requires improvement
Caring – requires improvement
Responsive – good
Well-led – requires improvement.
There were breaches of regulations 12 (safe care and treatment) and 17 (good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
The current inspection was carried out on 13 September 2019. This was a full comprehensive inspection carried out as part of our inspection programme, and it was also to check that the required improvements had been made.
At this inspection on 13 September 2019 we rated the practice as good overall and in all the key questions and population groups. Improvements had been made in all the areas of previous concern.
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 and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. 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:
- Check that staff have received immunisations appropriate for their role. These include tetanus and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) for non-clinical staff.
We found an area of outstanding practice:
- The practice manager had introduced a new system so they could easily see what training each staff member had completed and when it should be renewed. The had linked relevant policies with on-line training courses, so in addition to the on-line learning staff were made familiar with practice policies. This also provided an audit trail confirming staff had taken the time to read practice policies.
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