We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Consulting Rooms on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about The Consulting Rooms, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Consulting Rooms, on 9 January 2017. The overall rating for the practice was good with the practice rated as requires improvement for being safe.
From the inspection on 9 January 2017, the practice was told they must:
This was because:
In addition, the practice was told they should:
The full comprehensive report on the inspection carried out in January 2017 can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Consulting Rooms on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
This focused desktop inspection of The Consulting Rooms undertaken on 1 August 2019 was to check that the practice had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met the legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to those requirements.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups.
Our key findings were:
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
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Consulting Rooms on 9 January 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
The practice did not have an effective system to manage patient safety alerts.
Staff did not have current training in how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children.
The practice did not have a nominated infection control lead nor had any practice led audits taken place in the previous 12 months.
The governance framework did not ensure the practice undertook regular and comprehensive reviews of the quality of service.
Clinical audits demonstrated quality improvement.
The areas where the provider must make improvement are:
Review and consider processes concerning Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts.
Review and consider infection control within the practice.
Review and consider audit processes of emergency medicines.
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
Identify clearly to patients the availability of extended hours.
Ensure staff training records accurately reflect training staff had received.
Continue to develop the patient participation group (PPG) to ensure engagement with patients.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We inspected the service again, to check improvements had been made. During this inspection, we found that the risks to patient care and treatment were minimised as staff received appropriate training and professional development.
Our conversations with staff and review of training documentation and staff files demonstrated that all staff had received or were scheduled to receive an annual appraisal by August 2014. We saw there was a system in place to monitor the completion of training and most staff were up to date with their basic (mandatory) training. We found that nurses attended relevant study days and clinical skills courses and the reception staff had received comprehensive training on the new computerised patient management system installed at the practice.
We spoke with eight people who all spoke highly of services provided to them. We also spoke with staff who said they enjoyed working in the practice and described some of the recent changes that had been made, which were viewed positively.
People's needs were assessed and care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with their individual needs. One person said, "The doctors are very nice. I've been seeing the same one for many years. Speaks for itself really."
We saw that there was a system to ensure repeat prescriptions were available promptly and medicines that were kept at the practice were stored safely.
Many of the staff had been employed for a number of years and were familiar with the practice. There was an electronic e-learning system in place to facilitate mandatory training, but this had not been fully implemented. Furthermore there was little evidence that staff underwent regular supervision or appraisal.
The practice had an electronic records system, which was used by all staff. Paper records received from other areas, when people changed practices were stored safely.