The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Beaumont Park Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

The Surgery, Hepscott Drive, Beaumont Park, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, NE25 9XJ (0191) 251 4548

Provided and run by:
Beaumont Park Surgery

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 21 January to 27 January 2026. Beaumont Park Surgery is a GP practice and delivers service to approximately 6,400 under a contract held with NHS England. The National General Practice Profiles states that 21.6% of patients are aged 65 years or over, compared with the England average of 18%. Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the 10th decile (10 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery. Where relevant, further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.

This was a responsive assessment carried out as a follow-up to the previous assessment conducted in November 2024 when the practice was rated as requires improvement overall and requires improvement for the key questions of safe, effective and well led. At that time, breaches of safe care and treatment and good governance were identified.

The purpose of this follow-up assessment was to evaluate the progress made in addressing the identified concerns and to determine whether the necessary improvements had been implemented to ensure compliance.

The service had a positive learning culture, and staff felt able to raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents and clinical risk, with processes in place for safety alerts and high‑risk medicines. Facilities were clean and appropriate for people’s needs, and staffing levels were suitable. Medicines were mainly managed safely, although some areas required further review and clearer documentation. Some improvements were still required, particularly around outstanding safety actions and documented clinical competency assessments.

People were involved in assessments of their needs, and staff considered communication, personal and health needs. Care was based on latest evidence and good practice. Staff worked with other agencies involved in people’s care to support good outcomes and smooth transitions between services. Staff ensured people understood their care and treatment to enable informed consent. Where people lacked capacity, staff involved those important to them and made decisions in their best interests.

Leaders and staff had a shared vision and culture based on listening, learning and trust. Leaders were visible, knowledgeable and supportive, helping staff develop in their roles. Staff felt supported to give feedback and were treated equally, free from bullying or harassment. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities. However, some governance processes required strengthening, including documenting clinical competency assessments and ensuring timely follow‑up of identified safety actions. Despite this, there remained a culture of continuous improvement, with staff given time and resources to support ongoing development relevant to their roles.

Since the last assessment, the practice had made improvements and is no longer in breach of safe care and treatment and good governance.

During an assessment under our new approach

Beaumont Park Surgery provides General Medical Services (GMS) under a locally agreed contract with NHS England to patients in Whitley Bay. The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: maternity and midwifery services; diagnostic and screening procedures; family planning and the treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The practice is part of the NHS North Tyneside Integrated Care Board (ICB). The deprivation score of the area in which the practice is situated is 10 (1 being most deprived, 10 being less deprived).

We carried out an announced focused assessment between 04 November 2024 and 06 November 2024. The assessment was carried out to assess whether there had been improvements since the last assessment of this service in May 2023, at which point the practice was rated as good overall and required improvement for the key question safe, now we have rated the practice as requires improvement overall and for the key questions safe, effective and well-led.

There were approximately 6,500 people registered with the practice at the time of our assessment. We found 2 breaches in the legal regulations in relation to good governance and safe care and treatment. We found concerns around assessing the risk of the prevention, detection and control of the spread of infections and safe management of medicines. The practice did not always reflect current evidence-based guidance when managing long term conditions. Also, the overall governance arrangements within the practice were ineffective.

04 May 2023

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out a short-notice, focused inspection at Beaumont Park Surgery on 4th May 2023. The practice remains rated good overall.

We previously inspected the practice on 8 December 2016. At that time, the practice was rated good overall and for each of the five key questions.

This inspection included an on-site inspection and looked at the key question is the service safe. We have rated the practice as requires improvement for safe. This was in line with our published methodology to limit ratings at the key question level where we have identified a breach of regulations. Overall, the practice remains rated good.

Safe - requires Improvement.
Effective - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.
Caring - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.
Responsive - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.
Well-led -- not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This was an urgent focused inspection. We have carried out this inspection because we received information of concern relating to infection control issues at the practice.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out by 2 CQC inspectors who visited the practice after a short-notice announcement.

This included:

  • Observing the practice.
  • Reviewing evidence of policies and documents in line with the ‘Safe’ domain.

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:

  • At this inspection we found that the practice did not have an infection prevention and control lead in place.
  • We found that there was a lack of infection control audit activity being carried out.
  • There was limited information surrounding staff vaccinations; both pre-employment and once employment had commenced. For example, Covid-19 and Flu vaccinations.
  • There was evidence that cleaning logs had recently been put in place and were now being used.
  • Not all staff had received appropriate safeguarding training at the time of the inspection. Staff were also unsure who the safeguarding lead at the practice was.
  • The emergency equipment was located in various places around the practice. Whilst a member of staff was checking the equipment was working, no system was in place for it to be checked in their absence. Other members of staff were unaware a system for administration staff to carry out checks on the defibrillator had been introduced.
  • The waiting room and public spaces were clean and free from clutter.
  • Staff who hadn’t been subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check had not been risk assessed to support this.

We found 1 breach of regulation. The provider must:

  • Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

In addition, the provider should:

  • Review and improve processes and awareness around significant event reporting and the sharing of lessons learned as a result.
  • Review and improve processes for the checking of emergency medicines and equipment, including formalising arrangements for this to carry on in the absence of designated people.
  • Complete a risk assessment to support the decision not to carry out a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for any member of staff.

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

18 August 2016

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a previous announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 8 December 2016. Overall, we rated the practice as good. However, there was a breach of legal requirement. In particular, we found:

  • A continuing breach of a legal requirement regarding the lack of appropriate authorisation being place for healthcare staff to administer vaccines. Also, the arrangements for ensuring the security of prescriptions was not sufficiently rigorous.

After the comprehensive inspection the practice told us about what they would do to address the identified breach. We undertook this announced focussed inspection, on 18 August 2016, to check that the practice had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met the legal requirement. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Beaumont Park Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Our key findings were as follows:

The provider had complied with the requirement notice we set following our last inspection visit. In particular, we found:

  • The correct authorisation had been put in place to enable health care staff to administer vaccines.

  • Prescription pads and blank prescriptions were securely stored.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

08 December 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Beaumont Park Surgery on 8 December 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and report incidents and near misses.

  • Feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treated them. Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.

  • Results from the NHS GP Patient Survey of the practice, published in January 2016, showed that patient satisfaction levels were very good, and the practice had consistently performed above the majority of local CCG and the national averages.The results also demonstrated staff’s commitment to providing their patients with good continuity of care.

  • All staff

  • Risks to patients and staff had been assessed and steps were being taken to minimise these. Whilst most medicines management systems and processes were safe, we identified that influenza vaccines were being administered without the correct authorisation being in place. Also, the arrangements for ensuring prescription security were not fully effective.

  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.

  • Overall, the practice had satisfactory facilities and was well equipped to treat patients. Plans were in place to improve the patient waiting area which was beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

  • Staff were consistent and proactive in supporting patients to live healthier lives, through a targeted approach to health promotion.

  • The practice had performed very well with regards to protecting their older patients against seasonal influenza. They were the ‘top practice’ in North Tyneside for vaccinating patients aged 65 year and over, and had vaccinated over 80% of this group of patients.

  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management team. Overall, good governance arrangements were in place.

  • Staff had a clear vision for the development of the practice and were committed to providing their patients with good quality care.

The area where the provider must make improvement is:

  • Review the arrangements for non-qualified staff administering influenza vaccines to ensure national guidance is followed, and ensure prescriptions are handled in line with national guidance issued by NHS Protect.

We also identified other areas where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly, the provider should:

  • Prepare a GP locum induction pack.

  • Carry out regular checks to make sure that clinicians continue to be registered with their professional body.

  • Provide the member of staff designated as the practice’s infection control lead with advanced infection control training.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice