The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

Bellingham Practice Also known as The Bellingham Practice

Overall: Outstanding read more about inspection ratings

Bellingham, Hexham, Northumberland, NE48 2HE

Provided and run by:
Bellingham Practice

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Bellingham Practice is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 3,432 people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 98.9% White, 0.5% Asian, 0.4% Mixed, 0.0% Black and 0.2% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 5th decile (5 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the service population is relative to others.

This was a focused assessment. We undertook this assessment due to the length of time since our last assessment. We assessed 10 quality statements from across all 5 key questions. 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.

Staff kept facilities clean and maintained equipment appropriately to ensure people were kept safe. Systems were in place to assess and manage risks, although improvements were needed in relation to some environmental and infection prevention and control risks. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience.

Staff supported people to live healthier lives, monitoring their care and treatment to ensure they received positive and consistent outcomes.

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion, and respected their privacy and dignity.

People could access care, treatment and support when they needed it. Leaders and staff were alert to discrimination and inequality that could disadvantage groups of people who used the service and sought ways to address any barriers.

The service had a clear vision and strategy, which considered the needs of the people who used their service and the wider community. Staff understood their individual roles and responsibilities. Leaders supported staff and promoted a positive culture of learning and improvement. Governance processes were in place; however, these did not always provide effective oversight and assurance of risks, including environmental risks and the management of complaints.

19 November 2018

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as outstanding overall. (Previous inspection – 2 October 2014 – rating – good).

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Outstanding

Are services well-led? - Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bellingham Surgery on 19 November 2018, as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
  • Feedback from patients who use the service was continually positive about the way that staff treated them. The practice provided an exceptional service where patients were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care. Staff were very good at involving patients in decisions about their care and treatment and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. This was reflected in the very positive feedback the practice received from the national GP patient survey.
  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care and treatment they provided. Staff ensured that care and treatment was delivered in line with evidence-based guidelines.
  • Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients and were delivered in a way that ensured flexibility, choice and continuity of care.
  • The practice encouraged learning and improvement, and staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
  • The leadership, governance and culture within the practice were central to driving and improving the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care. The practice had a very clear vision to deliver high quality care and promote good outcomes for patients. This was supported by a highly effective business plan and business planning process. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff.
  • Governance processes and systems for risk management, performance and quality improvement operated effectively.

We rated the practice outstanding for providing caring, responsive and well led services because:

  • Patients’ individual needs and preferences were central to the practice’s delivery of tailored services. For example, leaders had reduced the risk of avoidable hospital admissions by actively engaging with a local scheme to give direct access to the local community hospital for people with an emergency healthcare plan. They had streamlined the recall process for annual health checks for patients with long term conditions (LTCs), which had lowered the number of missed appointments and increased the efficiency of the service. They had reinvested savings in clinician time to improve access to general appointments. This had supported an improved customer experience as reflected in the very positive feedback patients gave the service. The practice understood the challenges faced by patients living in a rural area. They had identified areas where there were gaps in the service locally and had taken steps to address these, by negotiating improved access for their patients. Staff actively engaged with the local community, to help ensure the surgery could stay open in adverse weather conditions and, so that vulnerable patients living in outlying rural areas could continue to receive a care and treatment.
  • Patients could access services and appointments in a way and at a time that suited them. The practice’s performance on the National GP Patient survey was higher than both local and national averages, across all indicators relating to the responsiveness and timeliness of the service. For some of these, the performance was much higher than average and demonstrated a positive variation when compared to local and national averages. They had improved access for young people by providing targeted out-of-hours appointments at a clinic on a Thursday evening and implementing online consultations aimed at young people. They had attained the ‘You’re Welcome’ accreditation, which is a set of quality criteria aimed at supporting primary care to deliver young people friendly health services.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

02 October 2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Bellingham Practice on 2 October 2014. We inspected the main surgery but did not visit the twice weekly branch surgery at Otterburn Village Hall.

We rated the practice overall as good, with some areas of outstanding practice identified.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice covered a large geographical and rural area, services had been designed to meet the needs of the local population.
  • Feedback from patients was overwhelmingly positive, they told us staff treated them with respect and kindness.
  • Staff reported feeling supported and able to voice any concerns or make suggestions for improvement.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

  • The provision of services for young people. Significant time and effort had been taken to engage with young people. Services were specifically designed to meet local young people’s needs.
  • A patient centered approach to delivering care and treatment. All were aware of and sympathetic to, the particular difficulties faced by the local population. The practice had taken action to bring additional services to patients to help address some of those issues. 

However, there was also an area of practice where the practice needs to make improvements.

The practice should:

  • improve its arrangements for recruiting new members of administrative staff.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice