Hetton Group Practice

Updated 1 July 2025

Date of Assessment: 6 October to 24 October 2025. On 21 October 2025 we carried out remote clinical searches of the patient’s records, and on 23 October 2025, we carried out a visit to the practice. Hetton Group Practice is a GP practice and delivers service to approximately 11,900 patients under a contract held with NHS England. The provider of this service is a partnership of 5 GP partners, although at the time of our assessment only 3 were registered with CQC.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the 2nd decile (2 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.

The service had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. People were protected and kept safe. Staff understood and managed risks. The facilities and equipment met the needs of people, were clean and well-maintained and any risks mitigated. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Managers made sure staff received training and regular appraisals to maintain high-quality care. The management of medicines could be improved, and we were concerned about the location of the emergency medication.

The service did not always make sure people’s care and treatment were effective. We saw that oversight of long-term conditions could be improved. Staff worked with all agencies involved in people’s care for the best outcomes and smooth transitions when moving services. Staff made sure people understood their care and treatment to enable them to give informed consent. Staff involved those important to people took decisions in people’s best interests where they did not have capacity.

People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff protected their privacy and dignity. They treated them as individuals and supported their preferences. People had choice in their care and treatment. The service supported staff wellbeing.

People were involved in decisions about their care. The service provided information people could understand. People knew how to give feedback and were confident the service took it seriously and acted on it. The service was easy to access and worked to eliminate discrimination. People received fair and equal care and treatment. The service worked to reduce health and care inequalities through training and feedback. People were involved in planning their care and understood options around choosing to withdraw or not receive care.

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. Managers worked with the local community to deliver the best possible care and were receptive to new ideas. There was a culture of continuous improvement with staff given time and resources to try new ideas.

Updated 1 July 2025

Feedback from patients from the various sources of information available was mostly positive.

The most recent National GP Patient Survey results were similar to national averages (results reported on are from 30/12/2024 to 01/04/2025). For example, the percentage of respondents to the GP patient survey who responded positively to the overall experience of their GP practice was 71.9%, while the national average was 69.6%.

The practice sent us some analysed results of NHS friends and family test data from October 2024 to September 2025. The results showed that overall patients experience of the service was 82% very good, 12% good, 2% neither good nor poor, 1% fair, 2% poor and 1% do not know.

There were good positive comments including, very proffesional staff, happy with service, understanding, listening, lovely and on time.

The practice had put together a list of actions from analysis of the negative feedback received from the NHS friends and family data to see where they could improve.

The practice send us a list of 30 collated compliments from patients. Patients gave their thanks to GPs, nursing staff and administration staff. There was feedback for many individual members of staff for doing a great job and passing on their praise and thanks.

There was an active patient participation group (PPG) who represented the views of people using the service. We spoke with some of the groups representatives. They told us that the group had recently reconvened. They told us that the practice were good at listening to patient feedback and acting on it. They thought the staff did a great job. They said they were getting used to the new eConsult service which had been introduced (eConsult is an online digital triage tool to assist doctors in deciding which appointment is the most appropriate for patients). They thought it was a positive move by the practice to use this even though it was sometimes difficult to navigate.

We spoke with 2 representatives from the 3 care homes where the practice had patients who were resident. Both services gave us very positive feedback about the practice being responsive to their requests for any aspect of their residents’ care.

When we announced our assessment, we shared our online link with the practice to forward to patients to share their experiences. We received 7 items of feedback of which 6 were positive. Comments included good service and felt listened to.