Archived: The Summitt Practice

Updated 2 December 2021

The Summitt Practice is located in Forest Gate, north east London at East Ham Memorial Hospital, Shrewsbury Road, Forest Gate E7 8QR.

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

The practice is situated within the NHS Newham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 2558. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider Primary Care Network of GP practices: Newham North East 2 PCN.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (four 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 54% Asian, 17% White, 13% Black, 3% Mixed, and 3% Other.

The practice has two male GP partners. There is a locum female practice nurse working one full day every second week and a full-time practice manager along with three reception/ administration staff members.

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 are telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient, then the patient is offered a face to face appointment.

Out of hours appointments are available through Newham GP Co-op collaborative. Pre-bookable appointments are also available to all patients at additional locations within the area, as the practice is a member of the Newham North East 2 Primary Care Network.

Updated 2 December 2021

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Summitt Practice on 01 October 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Set out the ratings for each key question

Safe - Requires improvement

Effective – Requires improvement

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Requires improvement

Following our last inspection on 10 February 2020, the practice was rated requires improvement overall and rated good for caring and responsive but requires improvement for providing safe, effective and well led services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Summitt Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to follow up on breaches of regulations and covers our findings in relation to the actions we told the practice they should take to improve:

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 site visit.

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 Requires Improvement overall.

We found that:

• The practice had addressed most of the issues identified at the last inspection, however, at this inspection we found arrangements for identifying, monitoring and managing risks to patient safety required improvement. For example, people had not received appropriate physical health monitoring with appropriate follow-up in accordance with current national guidance.

• The practice had a written protocol for repeat prescribing of medicines which needed monitoring, however, clinicians had not followed the protocol to ensure appropriate monitoring and prescribing has been carried out.

• The provider had not ensured clinicians had acted sufficiently on abnormal test results and that results were clearly recorded in patient records. We found patients’ records were not appropriately coded in order to support the effective delivery of care.

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

• Childhood immunisation uptake rates were below the World Health Organisation (WHO) targets. Uptake rates for the vaccines given were below the target of 95% in five areas where childhood immunisations are measured.

• The practice had not demonstrated it had an effective strategy to improve its performance for cervical screening which was lower than CCG and England averages.

• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. However, overall governance arrangements in place required improvement. For example, the provider did not have oversight of staff training and could not easily evidence the training undertaken by staff.

• We found evidence of quality improvement measures including clinical audits and reviews. There was evidence of action taken to change practice.

The provider must:

• Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way.
• Ensure that persons employed in the provision of a regulated activity received such appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as was necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they were employed to perform.

The provider should:

• Improve recording of DNACPR decisions.
• Continue to implement a programme to improve uptake for cervical screening and childhood immunisations.
• Take action to increase the number of carers identified, in order that they can provide support to these patients.
• Improve compliance with policies and procedures; for example, the prescribing policy.

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