Mayflower Medical Centre

Updated 29 April 2022

Mayflower Medical Centre is located in Dovercourt at:

419 Main Road

Dovercourt

Harwich

Essex

CO12 4EX

The practice has a dispensary for people living in rural areas without easy access to a pharmacy that received their dispensing service.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of about 17,500. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of three local GP practices and have developed additional extended hours services to support the local population.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third lowest decile (three of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 1% Asian, 97.5% White, 0.4% Black, 1% Mixed, and 0.1% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local averages.

There is a clinical team of nine GPs, ten nurses, three healthcare assistants, two dispensary assistants, a pharmacist, and an emergency care practitioner. The clinical team are supported by a team of reception and administration staff including a practice manager and a finance manager.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, many GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered an appointment at the practice.

Extended access is provided locally by the practice and the practices within the primary care network (PCN) group, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by the 111 service.

Updated 29 April 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Mayflower Medical Centre on 09 March 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Set out the ratings for each key question

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - good

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 17 June 2015, the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Mayflower Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection.

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to follow up on:

• Concerns received by the Care Quality Commission and the local clinical commissioning group about the ability of people to access the practice by telephone.
• The recommendations identified at the previous inspection.

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 with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider.
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.

Our findings

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

We found that:

• Safeguarding, safety and risk management systems, infection control, and the dispensary and medicines management processes, were well managed.
• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Care and treatment was appropriate, effective, and well monitored and patients received care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. Patient feedback on inspection was positive, and GP survey results were in line with local and national results
• The practice had adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way and complaints were well managed.
• The practice was led and managed to promote the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. There were effective governance, and risk management systems and processes.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to improve the lower trending medicine indicators found on inspection.
• Continue to improve the uptake of childhood immunisations.
• Continue to improve the uptake of cervical cancer screening.
• Embed the updated monitoring process to ensure all clinical reviews had pathology results recorded.
• Continue to monitor and improve access to the practice via the telephone.

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