The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

Silloth Group Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Lawn Terrace, Silloth, Wigton, Cumbria, CA7 4AH (016973) 31309

Provided and run by:
Silloth Group Medical Practice

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about Silloth Group Medical Practice 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 Silloth Group Medical Practice, you can give feedback on this service.

12 and 18 September 2022

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Silloth Group Medical Practice on 12 and 19 September 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

The key question ratings were:

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Well-led – Good

At our previous inspection in March 2019 we rated the practice as Good overall and for the key questions Safe, Effective, Caring, and Well-Led. They were rated as Outstanding for the key question of responsive.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This was a focused inspection to follow up on concerns that were raised with us.

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.
  • Staff questionnaires
  • 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.

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 Good overall

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. The practice was working hard to ensure backlogs created by COVID-19 were being reduced quickly and safely.
  • The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services

29 March 2019

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Silloth Group Medical Practice on 29 March 2019 as part of our inspection programme (previous rating November 2015 – Good overall and Outstanding for Caring).

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 good overall, but as outstanding for responsive and for all population groups.

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 treated patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services because:

  • Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. They were delivered in a flexible way that ensured choice and continuity of care.
  • There were innovative approaches to providing integrated person-centred care.
  • Due to the remote location of the practice and the distance from acute hospitals, the practice had taken a number of steps to ensure patients could receive more care closer to home.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice:

  • The practice had scored above local and national averages for every question in the most recent National GP Patient Survey, released in July 2018, and were consistently among the top five practices (out of 40) in the clinical commissioning group for patient responses.
  • Given the distance from hospital, the practice had taken steps to ensure as much care as possible could be offered close to home. For example, nurses at the practice undertook additional training to be able to flush peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC lines). They also put in place a “chest pain package” which meant all staff were trained and aware what to do in the event of a patient presenting with chest pain. The idea was that all tests – such as taking bloods and carrying out ECGs – would be performed before the ambulance arrived so that a patient could be taken to hospital as quickly as possible.

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 General Practice

24 November 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Silloth Group Medical Practice on 24 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised, external agencies were informed of the outcome if they were involved. There were strong comprehensive safety systems in place.
  • The practice had scored very well on clinical indicators within the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).They achieved 99.1% for the year 2014/15, which was above the average in England of 93.5%. The QOF is part of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract for general practices. Practices are rewarded for the provision of quality care.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Patients commented that they thought they received a very good service from the practice.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • Patients said they were able to get an appointment with a GP when they needed one, with urgent appointments available the same day. The practice had recently reviewed the appointments system, in order to improve the service they provided to patients and offered an open access appointment system every morning for two hours.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • There was a clear leadership structure in place and staff felt supported by management. The practice sought feedback from staff and patients, which they acted on. Staff throughout the practice worked well together as a team.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice including:

  • The practice offered personalised mentoring with one to one support. The CCG pharmacist had been mentored into their role of medicines optimisation pharmacist. They had been trained by the practice, at their expense, to be a prescriber. This meant they could carry out complex medication reviews and polypharmacy clinics; polypharmacy is the concurrent use of multiple medications.The practice said the pharmacist had reviewed 117 people in the last 11 months; they ran clinics every two weeks and carried out regular reviews on all patients who have over three medications and also carried out reviews of the patients in their care and residential homes.One of the GPs was mentor for the health care assistant, they had arranged for spirometry training with a specialist nurse off site to meet their learning needs.

  • The practice provided an excellent palliative care service. This included providing patients and family members with support; they had open access to a GP and counselling was routinely offered. The nearest conventional palliative hospice was one hours journey away in Carlisle. The practice recognised this and arranged to have one community bed in the local charity run nursing home where they could admit end of life patients who needed the care, without having to involve social services. This ensured the patient could access the care needed as soon as possible.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice