Cookham Medical Centre

On this page

• Overview
• Learning culture
• Safe systems, pathways and transitions
• Safeguarding
• Involving people to manage risks
• Safe environments
• Safe and effective staffing
• Infection prevention and control
• Medicines optimisation

We looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm.

At our last inspection, we rated this key question as ‘Good’, however there were several elements within this key question that contributed towards a breach in regulation 17: Good governance. At this inspection, the rating for this key question remains rated as 'Good' with improvements made in the management of medicines. The breach of regulations has now been closed.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Learning culture during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

We did not look at Safe systems, pathways and transitions during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

We did not look at Safeguarding during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

We did not look at Involving people to manage risks during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

We did not look at Safe environments during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

We did not look at Safe and effective staffing during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

We did not look at Infection prevention and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Safe.

The practice made sure that medicines and treatments were safe and met people’s needs, capacities and preferences.

During this inspection, the CQC GP Specialist Advisor (SpA) undertook a set of remote searches on the practice’s clinical system, this was in agreement with the practice. We used a suite of clinical searches, reviewed samples of patient medical records and then discussed these searches with the practice. On review of the search findings, we found improvements had been made and there was an effective system in place to safely monitor patients. This included cohorts of patients prescribed medicines that required monitoring and patients with long-term conditions.

We also saw, there were clear and defined processes with supporting audit trails for the management of information about changes to a patient’s medicines including changes made by other services.

We also reviewed the system the practice used to record and act on safety alerts, including medicine alerts, medicine recalls and updates to local or national clinical guidance. Since the previous inspection in April 2024, we saw new processes had been adopted and embedded. Our review highlighted the practice responded to the alerts correctly in line with guidance and in accordance with the alert.

Staff managed prescription stationery appropriately and securely. Following the previous inspection, the practice had strengthened processes with twice daily monitoring to ensure full oversight of prescriptions stationery. The practice had also adopted a local ICB process to further strengthen the new prescription processes.

The practice had reviewed the medical emergency pathway including which emergency medicines to store. The practice had all the recommended medicines to manage medical emergencies, and these were stored in a new medicines box with an added anti tamper bracket for additional security.

Improvements had been made and staff now had appropriate authorisations to administer medicines, specifically Patient Specific Directions (PSD). All items administered under a PSD were now authorised by the Duty GP using revised clinical templates in line with the in-house policy and current national guidance.

As part of this inspection, we also reviewed national prescribing data and saw positive prescribing variation when comparing the practice’s achievement to local and national averages. This included antibacterial, hypnotic (medicines used in the treatment of insomnia) and opioid (medicines to treat pain) prescribing.

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