Clarkson Surgery

Updated 1 December 2021

Clarkson Surgery is situated in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. The practice provides services for approximately 12,000 patients. It holds a General Medical Services contract with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group. The practice dispenses medicines to patients who are eligible to receive this service.

The practice is registered with the CQC to carry on the following regulated activities - diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, surgical procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

There are a higher than average number of patients aged over 65. Data published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as three, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 78 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 83 years compared to the national average of 83 years.

There are three partners in the practice, two are GPs (one male and one female) and the practice manager is a managing partner. There are three salaried GPs (all female), three advance nurse practitioners, three paramedics (all female),one nurse specialising in mental health and one in diabetes. The practice employs three practice nurses and three healthcare assistants. There is a dispensary lead supported by eight other dispensary staff including delivery drivers. There is a team of reception, administration, secretarial, housekeeping and maintenance staff.

The practice is part of a wider primary care network group and has allocated staff who work in the practice including social prescribers, pharmacists, physiotherapists and a mental health nurse.

Clarkson Surgery is open from Monday to Friday. It offers appointments from 8.30am to 10am, 10.40am to 12pm and 3.30pm to 6pm daily.

Out of hours care is provided by Herts United Care via the NHS 111 service.

Updated 1 December 2021

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Clarkson Surgery on 24 October 2019 as part of our inspection programme. The service was previously inspected in June 2016 and was rated Good overall.

We carried out an inspection of this service following our annual review of the information available to us including information provided by the practice. Our review indicated that there may have been a significant change to the quality of care provided since the last inspection.

This inspection focused on the following key questions: Are services safe, effective and well-led?

Because of the assurance received from our review of information we carried forward the ratings for the following key questions: Are services caring and responsive? The practice is rated as good for providing caring and responsive services.

Since August 2018, Clarkson Surgery had become part of Octagon Medical Practice. Octagon Medical Practice provides primary medical services to approximately 156,000 patients in the Peterborough, Wisbech, March and Huntingdon areas of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

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 for all population groups.

We found that:

• Some of the practice systems and processes to provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm needed to be improved. On the day of the inspection we found risks were not always mitigated in a timely manner.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The provider achieved higher than average outcomes in the management of atrial fibrillation and the management of care plans for people experiencing serious mental illness.
• The way the overall organisation led and managed the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care was comprehensive and detailed however, at local practice level we found the leadership needed to be improved.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

Areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to monitor and improve the uptake of cervical screening for eligible women.
• Review and improve practice systems for monitoring quality improvement and ensure learning is shared with relevant practice staff in a timely manner.

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.