The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

Dilston Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

23 Dilston Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE4 5AB (0191) 219 6975

Provided and run by:
Dilston Medical Centre

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about Dilston Medical Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about Dilston Medical Centre, you can give feedback on this service.

10 June 2021

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out this desk top review on Dilston Medical Centre on 10 June 2021.

This followed an announced comprehensive inspection for the practice on 4 June 2019. The overall rating for the practice was good, but we rated the population group of Families, Children and Young People as requires improvement. We then carried out a desk-based review on 16 July 2020 to confirm that the practice were improving children’s uptake of immunisations identified in the previous inspection on 4 June 2019. Although improvement had been made, at that time the practice remained rated as Good overall and continued to be rated as Requires Improvement for the population group of Families, Children and Young People.

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

Why we carried out this review

This review was a focused review of information without undertaking a site visit to follow up on:

  • Uptake of childhood immunisations
  • Uptake of cervical screening

How we carried out the inspection/review

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our reviews differently.

This review was carried out through requesting evidence from the provider.

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 have rated this practice as Good overall and Good for all population groups.

We found that:

  • The practice had proactively worked to increase rates of both childhood immunisations and the uptake of cervical screening tests; their own figures showed they were now above national targets.

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 Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

16/07/2020

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dilston Medical Practice on 4 June 2019. The overall rating for the practice was good, but was rated as requires improvement for the population group Families, Children and Young People. The full comprehensive report on the June 2019 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dilston Medical practice on our website at .

This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 16 July 2020 to confirm that the practice were improving children’s uptake of immunisations and vaccinations identified in our previous inspection on 4 June 2019. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements.

The practice remains rated as Good overall and continues to be rated Requires Improvement for the population group Families, Children and Young People.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had improved their uptake of childhood immunisations and vaccinations but had not quite met the target of 90%.

• The practice had devised various strategies to continue to improve uptake of immunisations and vaccinations including a media campaign, a text-based reminder service and employing interpreters to support people who did not use English as their first language.

The provider should:

• Continue to work towards achieving a larger uptake of childhood immunisations and vaccinations.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

4 June 2019

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dilston Medical Centre on 4 June 2019. This was as part of our ongoing inspection programme and to check on the areas we said the practice should improve on when we inspected in June 2018 (when the practice was rated as requires improvement overall).

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.

At the last inspection in June 2018 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective and caring services because:

  • The practice had not yet demonstrated the improvements they had implemented were supporting patients to achieve good health outcomes in some areas. This included monitoring of patients with long term conditions and take up rates of childhood immunisations and cancer screening programmes.
  • The practice had not yet demonstrated the improvements they had implemented were leading to improved patient satisfaction levels.
  • The number of patients identified as carers was lower as would be expected based on their practice demographics.

At this inspection, we found that the provider had addressed most concerns from the last CQC inspection.

We rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups, apart from Families, Children and Young People, which we rated as requires improvement . (Previous rating June 2018 – Requires Improvement overall; Good for providing safe, responsive and well-led services; and, Requires Improvement for providing effective and caring services).

We rated the population group of Families, Children and Young people as requires improvement because the uptake of all childhood immunisations was below both the England target of 90% and the World Health Organisation target of 95%.

We found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The practice had reviewed and improved the care planning templates and recall arrangements to support them to meet the needs of patients. We found these were well developed and supported the practice in their work.
  • The practice had demonstrated the improvements they had made previously were sustained and available data showed the changes made by the practice had led to improved patient experience and health outcomes for patients.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • The practice had increased the number of patients they had identified as carers.
  • The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. GP partners demonstrated they had understood and taken ownership of the challenges faced by the practice and had developed and implemented a credible strategy to address them.
  • The practice had used clinical audit and improvement activity to achieve significant improvements in the uptake of cervical screening. This improvement was particularly noteworthy given the cultural barriers posed by the local demographics.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Maintain a record of recruitment checks made when employing locum staff.
  • Review the health and safety and premises/security risk assessments to ensure they are comprehensive and covers all known risks whether they were managed or unmanaged/in progress.
  • Deep clean and reseal the flooring and coving in the entrance passageway to the practice.
  • Continue to review the processes in place to increase the uptake of childhood immunisations.

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 Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

5 June 2018

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as requires improvement overall. (Previous rating October 2017 – Inadequate)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Requires Improvement

Are services caring? – Requires Improvement

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 8 December 2014 when the practice was rated as requiring improvement overall (inadequate for providing responsive services; requires improvement for providing safe, effective, caring and well-led services).

We carried out another announced comprehensive inspection on 7 November 2016 when the practice continued to be rated as requiring improvement overall (requires improvement for providing safe, effective and caring, responsive and well-led services).

We carried out a further announced comprehensive inspection on 29 September and 4 October 2017, when the practice was rated as inadequate overall (inadequate for providing safe, effective and caring, responsive and well-led services). As a result, the practice was placed into special measures.

The full comprehensive reports on these previous three inspections can be found at: .

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had improved many aspects of how the service was managed and delivered. There was improved leadership capacity within the practice, and this had supported a focus on addressing previous areas of concern.
  • 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.
  • The practice had started to review the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care they provided. They ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines. However, performance in some areas was lower than comparators.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. However, the practice had not yet demonstrated the improvements they had implemented were leading to improved patient satisfaction levels.
  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Follow up and maintain evidence of a full employment history for all new and existing staff.
  • Develop a system to increase identification of patients who are also carers and continue to develop support for carers.
  • Provide information to patients on the complaints process in a range of the most common language spoken by patients whose first language was not English.
  • Develop and build upon the quality improvement arrangements to ensure the practice monitors and acts upon information about the quality of the service and clinical audits to support continued service improvements.

I am taking this practice out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements made to the quality of care provided by this service.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

25 September 2017 and 4 October 2017

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We first carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 8 December 2014. We rated the practice then as requiring improvement for providing safe, effective, caring and well-led care. We rated the practice as inadequate for providing responsive care. We carried out a further announced comprehensive inspection on 7 November 2016. We rated the practice as requiring improvement for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led care.

The full comprehensive reports on the December 2014 and November 2016 inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dilston Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We carried out this comprehensive inspection on 25 September 2016 and 4 October 2017, to check whether the provider had followed their action plan and had taken steps to comply with all legal requirements. Overall, the practice is now rated as inadequate.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • There was evidence the lack of leadership and oversight in the practice resulted in ineffective systems to identify and respond to emerging and knowable safety risks.
  • There was a lack of shared vision within the partnership. The practice did not have effective strategies in place to proactively make sustainable improvements.
  • Patients were at risk of harm because systems and processes were not in place to keep them safe. There were concerns about the processes for infection control, handling clinical correspondence and premises were not adequately maintained.
  • When things went wrong, reviews and investigations were not always sufficiently thorough and did not always include all relevant people.
  • Patients’ outcomes were very variable, and sometimes significantly worse, when compared with other similar services.
  • There was a continuing trend on the National GP Patient Survey (July 2017) of well below average results.
  • There was no evidence that audit was driving improvement in patient outcomes.
  • Patients found it hard to access services because the facilities and premises were not appropriate for the service being provided. The practice had not considered different ways of working to maximise the use of clinical rooms.
  • The practice had made improvements to the way they informed patients about the services available.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

  • Ensure sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons are deployed to meet the fundamental standards of care and treatment.
  • Ensure all premises and equipment used by the practice is fit for use.
  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

In addition the provider should:

  • Clarify the policies and procedures for offering a chaperone service and make sure staff are familiar with this policy.
  • Improve the arrangements to manage risks where capacity for appointment availability is outmatched by patient demand.

I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any population group, key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.

Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

7 November 2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We first carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 8 December 2014. We rated the practice then as requires improvement for providing safe, effective, caring and well-led care, we rated the practice as inadequate for providing responsive care. There were breaches of regulation, in particular we found the systems and processes were not operated effectively in order to assess, monitor and improve the quality of service provided in carrying out the regulated activities. We also found that systems to assess the risk and prevent, detect and control the spread of infection and the systems to ensure the premises were maintained were ineffective. After the inspection, the provider wrote to say what they would do to address the issues raised at the inspection. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dilston Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We undertook this comprehensive inspection on 7 November 2016 to check that the practice had followed their plan.

Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

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

  • The practice had complied with two of the requirement notices we set following the last inspection. We found that the practice had effective systems to assess the risk and prevent, detect and control the spread of infection and that the systems to ensure the premises were maintained were more effective. However, while the practice had demonstrated the ability to improve their governance systems, we found areas where the practice must make improvements.
  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. However, when things went wrong, reviews and investigations were not sufficiently thorough to support improvement.
  • Most risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. However, it was only available in English; it was not available in other languages to suit the practice population.
  • Patients said that they sometimes had to wait a long time for non-urgent appointments. Urgent appointments were usually available on the day they were required. However, the practice sometimes referred patients requiring an urgent appointment to the local walk in centre during the practice’s normal opening hours.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. However, the practice was aware of the need to make improvements to the building.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by the management structure and clinical team. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff. However, there were limited arrangements to seek feedback from patients.
  • The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour regulation.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

  • Review the systems and processes in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service provided. Specifically, to enable lessons to be learned from significant events to prevent their reoccurrence and to improve the outcomes of patients at the practice. In addition, the practice’s quality improvement and governance systems were not effective.
  • Ensure that the required staff recruitment checks are completed; specifically ensure all clinical staff have a Disclosure and Baring Service check carried out.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Complete the process for the registration of the partnership with the Care Quality Commission.
  • Review arrangements for the management and distribution of blank prescription forms to take into account national guidance.
  • Continue to review their arrangements to effectively capture the views of patients to improve the service provided by the practice.
  • Take steps to improve the identification of carers at the practice.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

8 December 2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a planned comprehensive inspection of Dilston Medical Centre on 8 December 2014.

Overall, we rated the practice as requires improvement. Specifically, we found the practice to require improvement for providing safe, effective, caring and well led services. It also required improvement for providing services for older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). It was inadequate for providing a responsive service.

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

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses
  • Risks to patients were assessed but action to address concerns was not always taken in a timely manner.
  • Data showed patient outcomes were broadly comparable to the national averages.
  • Infection control audits had been carried out, but they were not always used to drive improvements.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was not readily available in various languages to suit the practice population.
  • Urgent appointments were not always available on the day they were requested. Patients said that they sometimes had to wait a long time for non-urgent appointments.
  • The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, which were being reviewed and updated. The practice held regular governance meetings.
  • The premises were not being adequately maintained.
  • The practice had not proactively sought feedback from patients.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

  • Ensure there are effective mechanisms in place to identify, assess and manage risks relating to health, welfare and safety of service users.
  • Ensure there are effective systems designed to assess the risk of and prevent, detect and control the spread of infection.
  • Ensure that there are effective systems in place to ensure that the premises are adequately maintained.
  • In addition the provider should:
  • Consider implementation of arrangements to effectively capture the views of patients to improve the service provided by the practice.
  • Consider implementation of arrangements to ensure adequate numbers of appointments are available to meet the needs of patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice