The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Hill Barton Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

1 Lower Hill Barton Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3EN (01392) 444242

Provided and run by:
Hill Barton Surgery

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 7 July 2026. Hill Barton Surgery is a GP practice and delivers services to 4,628 people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 92% White, 4% Asian, 2% Mixed, 1% Black and 1% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 9th decile (9 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, not all staff were up to date with training which the service had deemed mandatory.

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 service 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 of staff through clear and effective governance processes. However, oversight of infection prevention and control and monitoring of staff training completion was not consistent.

16 July 2019

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out an announced new style focussed inspection at Hill Barton Surgery on 16 July 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

The inspection of this service followed 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 (either deterioration or improvement) to the quality of care provided since the last inspection.

This inspection focused on the following key questions:

  • Effective
  • Well-Led

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
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as good for providing effective and well led services because:

  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care and developments at the practice.
  • The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
  • The practice utilised all feedback and opportunities to network, share and implement current best practice.

We rated all population groups as good.

The practice had three recommendations at our previous inspection in 2015 and had implemented changes.

  • Regular scheduled nurse meetings took place which were attended by the practice manager. Minutes were taken, actions agreed and followed up.
  • A rolling system of policy and procedure reviews took place throughout the year.
  • Accessibility risk assessments were carried out, including comprehensive assessments of the toilet facilities to improve access for patients who used wheelchairs.

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

07/07/2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We inspected Hill Barton Surgery on 7th July, 2015 as part of our comprehensive inspection programme.

We have rated the practice overall as providing a good service. Specifically we found the practice to be good for providing responsive, safe, effective, caring and well led services. It was good for providing services for all the population groups, older people, families, children and young people, people with long term conditions people in vulnerable circumstances, people experiencing poor mental health and people who are working age or recently retired.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
  • There were arrangements in place to respond to the protection of children and vulnerable adults and to respond to any significant events affecting patients’ well-being.
  • The practice worked well with other health care services to enable a multi-disciplinary approach in meeting the health care needs of patients receiving a service from the practice.
  • The practice managed complaints well and took them seriously. Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • There was a clear management structure with approachable leadership. Staff were supported and had opportunities for developing their skills, were well supported and had good training opportunities.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. Patients commented how helpful the staff were in trying really hard to get them a convenient appointment.
  • The practice had a vision and informal set of values which were understood by staff. There were clear clinical governance systems and a clear leadership structure in place.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements

Importantly the provider should:

  • Introduce a system for Nurse meetings to be more formal and minutes taken with actions agreed.
  • Introduce a system to ensure policies are reviewed and updated.
  • Give consideration to improving the disabled toilet facilities.

 

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice