Archived: Primary Care Today Limited Also known as Queens Medical Centre

Updated 4 March 2022

Primary Care Today Limited, also known as Queen’s Medical Centre, is located in Maltby at:

• Muglet Lane, Maltby, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S66 7NA.

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

The practice offers services from the main practice location only. The practice is situated within the NHS Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of approximately 1400. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of the Maltby Wickersley primary care network.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (one of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 97.8% White, 1.0% Asian, 0.9% Mixed, 0.2% Black and 0.1% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population roughly mirrors the local and national averages, however there were fewer younger and older people and more working age people registered at the practice compared to national averages.

Clinical cover is provided by one GP and one advanced nurse practitioner (ANP), supported by additional locum staff. The clinical team are supported at the practice by a team of reception and administration staff. At the time of our inspection, there was not a practice manager in post.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered an appointment at the practice.

Extended access is provided locally by Connect Healthcare Rotherham CIC, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 4 March 2022

We carried out a short-notice announced inspection at Primary Care Today Limited on 23 and 26 November 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as inadequate.

• Safe - inadequate
• Effective – requires improvement
• Caring - good
• Responsive - good
• Well-led - inadequate

Following our previous inspection on 21 February 2019, 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 Primary Care Today Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to follow up on information of concern.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic, CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit
• Conducting an electronic staff survey

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 inadequate overall.

We found that:

• The practice did not have clear systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• Appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were not met.
• Confidential patient information was not managed effectively or securely.
• The practice did not have systems for the appropriate and safe use of medicines, which included emergency medicines.
• The practice did not have a formalised mandatory training programme in place and not all staff had received and completed all mandatory training.
• There was limited monitoring of the outcomes of care and treatment, and the practice was unable to demonstrate consent to care and treatment was obtained in line with legislation and guidance.
• Complaints were not used to improve the quality of care
• The practice’s governance arrangements were ineffective.
• The practice did not have clear and effective processes for managing risks, issues and performance.
• Leaders could not demonstrate that they had the capacity and skills to deliver high quality sustainable care.
• The practice did not have a clear vision or strategy in place and there was little evidence of systems and processes for learning, continuous improvement and innovation.

However:

• Staff treated patients with kindness and compassion, respected their privacy and dignity, and involved them in decisions about their care and treatment.
• People were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.

We found two breaches of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care

Although not a breach of regulation, the provider should:

• Improve childhood immunisation and cervical screening rates.
• Improve safety netting advice to ensure all patients are provided with instructions on how to seek further help and advice if their condition deteriorates.
• Implement a system to ensure registers of patients who may be vulnerable, at risk or may require additional support are kept updated.

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

I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement, we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.

Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care