- GP practice
The Sides Medical Practice
Assessment report published 9 July 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 31 March 2026. The Sides Medical Practice is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 14,000 (as of 01/02/2026) people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 90.8% White 3.8% Asian, 2.6% Mixed, 1.7% Black and 1.1% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 9th decile (9 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, well-managed and maintained equipment appropriately to ensure people were kept safe. They assessed and managed the risk of infection well and took steps to control the risk of it spreading. 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 employed a proactive approach to health promotion within the community. 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, such as patients with a learning disability. The service had a clear vision and strategy, which considered the needs of the people who used their service and the wider community such as homeless patients. Staff understood their individual roles and responsibilities. Leaders accounted for the actions, behaviours and performance of staff through clear and effective governance processes.
People's experience of this service
As part of our assessment, we reviewed feedback from people who used the service to understand their views and experience of the service. This included speaking with people using the service at the time of our assessment and reviewing other feedback available to us. CQC received positive feedback from 101 patients and mixed feedback from 10 patients, leading up to this inspection. Feedback included excellent treatment, caring and respectful staff, and kind receptionists. People were positive about the quality of their care and treatment. They described how staff treated them with kindness and compassion and respected their privacy. This was mirrored in the results of recent surveys, including the 2025 National GP Patient Survey, which showed most people were satisfied. There was an active patient participation group (PPG) who represented the views ofpeople using the service. Representatives from the PPG described how leaders made positive changes because of feedback. The PPG worked with the practice to create a patient leaflet explaining the different roles within the practice, such as advanced nurse practitioners and paramedics, and then distributed the leaflets within the community.