Christchurch Family Medical Centre

Updated 23 August 2023

Christchurch Family Medical Centre is located in Bristol at:

North Street

Downend

Bristol

BS16 5SG

The practice has a branch surgery at:

Willow Surgery

Hill House Road

Downend

BS16 5FJ

We visited both sites as part of this inspection. There is no dispensary at this surgery.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, family planning and surgical procedures. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice offers services from both a main practice and a branch surgery. Patients can access services at either surgery.

The practice is situated within the Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of about 27,500. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices known as Network 4 Primary Care Network.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the eigth lowest decile (8 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 91.7% White, 3.4% Asian, 21% White, 2.3% Black, 2% Mixed, and 0.6% Other.

There is a team of 13 partners including 12 GPs and 2 clinical pharmacists. The GP team includes 6 salaried GPs who provide cover at both practices. The practice is supported by clinical teams of nurses, clinical pharmacists and paramedics who provide care in long term conditions, minor injury and illness and medication reviews. The practice has by a team of administration staff and care coordinators.

There are 2 executive managers responsible for managerial oversight. There executive manager based at the main location and branch site.

The practice is open between 7:30 am to 6:30 pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by Push Doctor, Saturday appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by 111.

Updated 23 August 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Christchurch Family Medical Centre on 20 June 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe - Requires improvement

Effective – Requires improvement

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Requires improvement

Following our previous inspection on 9 August 2016 the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this comprehensive inspection to follow up concerns reported to us. We looked at Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led key questions.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• 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 found that:

• The practice did not always provide care that kept patients safe. In particular, medicines that require monitoring and appropriate actioning of safety alerts.
• Patients did not always receive effective care and treatment that met their needs. In particular, action taken when patients are at risk or have developed a long term condition.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Leaders had responded to access concerns and were making progress to provide care and treatment in a timely way.
• The practice did not always have effective governance systems and processes to support high-quality care and delivery.

We found areas of outstanding practice:

• There were examples where the practice recognised and respected the totality of peoples needs, went the extra mile to support them. In particular, for patients who were identified to the care coordination team.
• The practice had achieved a gold award for their work to support carers.

We found 2 breaches of regulations. The provide must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider should:

• Take steps to improve processes to monitor staff and patient feedback. For example, implement the plan to introduce a Patient Participation Group (PPG).
• Improve systems to support patients to gain access to practice services, such as appointments.
• Continue to improve cervical screening uptake.
• Ensure that changes governance around Patient Group Directions (PGD’s) is embedded.

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 Health Care