Orchard Family Practice

Updated 16 December 2022

The registered provider is Orchard Family Practice.

Orchard Family Practice is located at Red Suite, Rainham Healthy Living Centre, 103-107 High Street, Rainham, Kent, ME8 8AA. The practice is situated within the NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Body (ICB) and has a general medical services contract with NHS England for delivering primary care services to the local community.

As part of our inspection we visited Orchard Family Practice, Red Suite, Rainham Healthy Living Centre, 103-107 High Street, Rainham, Kent, ME8 8AA only, where the provider delivers registered activities.

Orchard Family Practice has a registered patient population of approximately 4,933 patients. The practice is located in an area with a lower than average deprivation score.

There are arrangements with other providers to deliver services to patients outside of the practice’s working hours.

The practice staff consists of one GP partner and one pharmacist partner, one advanced nurse practitioner, three practice nurses, one healthcare assistant, one practice manager, one assistant practice manager as well as reception and administration staff. The practice also employs locum GPs directly and via an agency when required.

Orchard Family Practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (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.

Updated 16 December 2022

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

The full comprehensive report can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Orchard Family Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we carried out this inspection:

We carried out an announced inspection at Orchard Family Practice on 4 November 2022 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

How we carried out the inspection:

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 inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit

Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based 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.

Our findings:

We have rated this practice as Good overall.

• The practice’s systems, practices and processes helped keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• Risks to patients, staff and visitors were assessed, monitored and managed effectively.
• The arrangements for managing medicines helped keep patients safe.
• Published results showed uptake rates for childhood immunisations were above the target of 90% in four out of the five indicators.
• Published results showed the practice was performing above local and England averages for cervical screening, as well as breast cancer screening and bowel cancer screening.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• Staff treated patients with kindness, respect as well as compassion and helped them to be involved in decisions about care and treatment.
• Feedback about the practice from the national GP patient survey was positive and in line with or above local and England averages.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There were processes to support good governance and management.
• The practice involved patients, staff and external partners to help ensure they delivered high-quality and sustainable care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to ensure the practice’s computer system alerts staff of children on the risk register as well as all family and other household members of those children.
• Continue with plans for designated fire marshals to receive relevant update training in January 2023.
• Continue to act on and learn from all safety alerts.
• Continue to monitor reviews of patients with long-term conditions to help ensure best practice guidance is followed at each review.
• Continue to identify patients who are also carers to help ensure they have access to relevant care and support.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.