Background to this inspection
Updated
13 February 2019
Bishop’s Close Medical Practice provides services to around 8,700 patients from;
- Spennymoor Health Centre, Bishop's Close, Spennymoor, County Durham, DL16 6ED
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, family planning and surgical procedures.
Spennymoor Health Centre is in purpose built premises; all patient services are on the ground floor. There is a car park beside the practice, dedicated disabled parking bays and step free access.
The practice has three GP partners, two male and one female and two salaried GPs (one male and one female). There are four practice nurses and two healthcare assistants. There is a practice manager and 15 staff who undertake administration duties.
The practice is a training practice, which has GP registrars allocated to the practice (fully qualified doctors completing their 3-year postgraduate general practice vocational training programme). The practice supports and teaches medical students (first and fifth year). The practice supports and teaches student nurses.
The practice provides late evening appointments. They are part of the local federation of GP practices who work together to provide appointments with GPs, nurses or health care assistants outside of their normal working hours. Weekend and bank holiday appointments are provided through a shared local hub as part of the federation. When these services are not provided patients requiring urgent medical care can contact the out of hours provided by the NHS 111 service.
The practice is part of NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield clinical commissioning group (CCG). The practice provides services based on a General Medical Services (GMS) contract agreement for general practice.
Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as four, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is the same as the national average at 79 years. Female life expectancy is 82 years compared to the national average of 83 years.
Updated
13 February 2019
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bishop’s Close Medical Practice on 4 November 2015. Overall the practice was rated as good.
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the practice on 8 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme.
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 and good for all population groups except for people with long term conditions which we have rated outstanding.
We have rated the population group for people with long term conditions as outstanding for effective because:
- Services for patients were holistic and tailored to meet the needs of individual people.
- Systems were monitored and demonstrated that quality outcomes for patients were consistently high.
We have rated the population group for people with long term conditions as outstanding for responsive because:
- The needs of patients were central to the planning and delivery of services for this population group.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- The practice had systems in place so that safety incidents were less likely to happen.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
We saw one area of outstanding practice:
- The practice participated in the Healthier and Wealthier scheme where free benefits and welfare advice was given to patients. The practice received an award from the scheme ‘Healthier and Wealthier Awards Winner for 2017-2018’. The practice achieved the greatest gain in annual income from the scheme for patients which was £125,336.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice