Background to this inspection
Updated
14 September 2021
Coniston Medical Centre is located in the village of Coniston in Cumbria. The address is as follows:
Wraysdale House
Coniston
LA21 8ER
Due to the rural location, the practice has an on-site pharmacy dispensary.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The practice is situated within the Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 1030 from one location. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices called Grange and Lakes Primary Care Network.
The practice is located in a converted two-storey building. All patient facilities are on the ground floor. Access to the building is via a number of steps, alternative arrangements are made to ensure those patients using wheelchairs or pushing prams can access services, such as providing home visits. Patients can book appointments by telephone.
The practice has two GP partners (one male and one female), and three staff who carry out reception, administrative and dispensing duties. There are no nursing staff or a practice manager.
Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the eighth lowest decile (8 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.
The practice population is made up of a significantly higher than average proportion of patients over the age 65 (28.2% compared to the national average of 17.5%).
The service for patients requiring urgent medical attention out of hours is provided by the 111 service and Cumbria Health On Call (CHOC), however the GPs make themselves available as required.
Updated
14 September 2021
We carried out a desk top focused review of Coniston Medical Practice on 24 August 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
The key question ratings are as follows:
Safe - Good
Effective – Good (Carried forward from the last inspection in November 2020)
Caring – Good (Carried forward from the last inspection in November 2020)
Responsive – Good (Carried forward from the last inspection in November 2020)
Well-led – Good (Carried forward from the last inspection in November 2020)
Following our previous inspection on 2 November 2020, (published 9 December 2020), the practice was rated good overall and for the effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. All population groups were also rated good but the safe key question was rated requires improvement. The practice was rated as requires improvement for safe due to gaps in the practice’s oversight of premises and equipment safety checks.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘read previous reports’ link for Coniston Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this desk top review
This desk top review was undertaken to review information submitted by the provider. The review did not include a site visit.
The purpose of the review was to follow up on:
• The requires improvement rating from the previous inspection for the safe key question.
• The breaches of regulations for Regulation 12 (safe care and treatment) identified at the last inspection.
• Progress with ‘shoulds’ identified in previous inspection.
How we carried out the review.
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 reviews differently.
This review was carried out remotely to eliminate the need for a site visit and involved requesting information and evidence from the provider as part of the process.
Our findings
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected previously.
- 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 and Good for all key questions and population groups.
We found that:
- The provider had completed a log to confirm portable applicances had been appropriately inspected and had made arrangements for the condition of the electrical wiring installation and clinical equipment used in the practice to be independently inspected, calibrated and tested.
- The provider also provided assurance as part of this desk top review that they had taken action to respond to any ‘shoulds’ that were recommended at the last inspection. For example, in relation to the recording of two-week wait referrals; updating of the dispensary standard operating procedures and recruitment procedure; the recording of maximum and minimum fridge temperatures; the review of systems for the management of patients on high risk medicines; the provision of additional coding training for staff and to improve cervical screening uptake.
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