The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Beacon View Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Beacon Lough Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE9 6YS

Provided and run by:
Beacon View Medical Centre

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 4 August 2026. Beacon View Medical Centre is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 5,800 people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 94% White, 2.2% Asian, 1.1% Mixed, 1.0% Black and 1.6% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 3rd decile (3 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. 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. However, we identified an opportunity to strengthen assurance that staff had completed training appropriate to their role and responsibilities, including safeguarding training.

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 provider 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 accounted for the actions, behaviours and performance of staff through clear and effective governance processes.

11 December 2017

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection January 2015 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Beacon View Medical centre on 11 December 2017 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had some systems in place to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. However, they did not have a supply of Oxygen on the premises.
  • They had not risk assessed the decision not to carry out a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on non-clinical staff.
  • There was no routine clinical oversight or review of secondary care patient related communications.
  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. They had a comprehensive schedule of clinical audit and quality improvement activity that could demonstrate improvements to patient care and outcomes. They ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
  • 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

  • The practice had secured funding to enable them to continue the FLORENCE project. This project enables patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease to be monitored remotely and had resulted in a 70% reduction rate in admissions to hospital for this group of patients.
  • The practice drove a systematic programme of clinical audit and quality improvement activity that lead to improvements in patient care and outcomes

There were areas where the provider must make improvements:

  • The provide should ensure that care and treatment is being provided in a safe way by doing all that is reasonably practicable to mitigate risks to the health and safety of service users.

The provider should also:

  • Review and risk assess the decision not to carry out DBS checks on non-clinical staff
  • Continue to monitor and improve telephone access and patient experience of making an appointment


Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

6 January 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a planned comprehensive inspection of Beacon View Medical Centre

on 06 January 2015.

Overall, we rated the practice as good. We found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. Our key findings were as follows:

  • The services had been designed to meet the needs of the local population.
  • Feedback from patients was 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.
  • The practice was visibly clean and tidy.
  • The practice learned from incidents and took action to prevent any recurrence.

We saw the following area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice participated in the FLORENCE project. The project enabled certain patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to be monitored remotely and self-administer medication from tailored rescue packs when necessary. The project has shown an overall reduction of 70% in the hospital admissions rate of patients involved in the project.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice