Background to this inspection
Updated
27 July 2020
The Andover Health Centre Medical Practice is located at Charlton Road, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 3LD. The practice shared its premises building with a sexual health clinic. The premises are located within the grounds of the Andover War Memorial Hospital.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the following Regulated Activities:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Family planning
- Maternity and midwifery services
- Surgical procedures
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The Andover Health Centre Medical Practice is situated within the West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group and provides services to approximately 13,500 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The provider is a partnership of GPs which registered with the CQC in 2013. The practice consists of nine GP partners, one salaried GP, four practice nurses, two health care assistants. Alongside the clinical team, a practice manager is supported by a deputy practice manager who lead a team of receptionist, administrators, and secretaries. The practice is a GP and nurse training practice and at the time of inspection, had two GP Registrars in training to become GPs on attachment. The practice is part of a GP Federation for the provision of extended access for primary healthcare services.
The National General Practice Profile states that 96% of the practice population is from a White background with an approximate further 2% of the population originating from an Asian background. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as nine, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 80 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 85 years compared to the national average of 83 years. There are a higher than national average number of patients aged between 5 and 14 years, and over the age of 65 years.
Updated
27 July 2020
We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Andover Health Centre Medical Practice on 7 February 2019 as part of our inspection programme. We rated the practice as Good overall, however we found a breach of regulations and rated Safe as Requires Improvement. You can read the full report by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Andover Health Centre Medical Practice on our website at .
We are mindful of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what type of inspection was necessary and proportionate, this was therefore a desk-based review inspection. On 7 July 2020, we carried out the desk-based review to confirm that the practice had carried out its plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach of regulations that we identified at our previous inspection on 7 February 2019.
We found that the practice is now meeting those requirements and we have amended the rating for this practice accordingly. The practice is now rated Good for the provision of safe services. We previously rated the practice as Good for providing Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well Led services.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we carried out our desk-based review
- a video interview with senior staff at the practice on 7 July 2020
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider.
We have rated Safe as Good because:
- The practice had implemented a protocol and procedure in place to ensure that all Patient Group Directions (PGDs) were appropriately authorised.
- The practice had updated the way in which action taken in response to safety alerts was recorded and shared with staff.
The practice had also made improvements since the last inspection in the areas of:
- Increasing the number of carers registered from 165 at the last inspection in February 2019 to 236 in June 2020. This 43% increase meant the practice now had 1.7% of the registered population identified as having caring responsibilities. The practice also told us about recommencing initiatives to encourage carers to register once the practice premises could be reopened to visitors.
- Seeking, and preparing to act on, patient feedback. A patient survey had been undertaken in February 2020 and showed a mostly positive response from the 176 patients who took part. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the formulation of an action plan to respond to the feedback had been deferred until September 2020. The 2020 national GP patients survey showed an increase in satisfaction with some aspects of care but continued to indicate below average feedback for accessing appointments.
- The induction policy and plan had been updated and whilst this was generic it was implemented for all staff.
- A policy tracking and updating system was in place. This identified when policies required updating and who was responsible. We noted this included the new policy for appropriate completion of PGDs.
- Unverified data showed the practice had achieved over 98% of the care and treatment reviews include in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in 2019/20. We could not access information about exception reporting (people removed from the monitoring standards because of contra indications or failure to attend) because the outcome data had yet to be verified and published.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Continue to improve the uptake for cervical screening to achieve the national target of 80%. We noted that appointments for cervical cytology tests were available during evenings and weekends. The practice was also launching a campaign to encourage women under the age of 50 to attend for their tests.
- Continue to review the method for tracking that practice directed training has been completed and evaluate the range of training the practice requires of each staff group.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice