We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Grange Medical Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about The Grange Medical Centre, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out an announced focused inspection at The Grange Medical Centre on 11 and 12 April 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
The ratings for each key question are:
Safe - Good
Effective – Good
Caring – Not rated at this inspection
Responsive – Not rated at this inspection
Well-led – Good
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Grange Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
We undertook this inspection at the same time as CQC inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in the area. To understand the experience of GP Providers and people who use GP services, we asked a range of questions in relation to urgent and emergency care. The responses we received have been used to inform and support system wide feedback.
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
Our findings
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
We have rated this practice as ‘Good’ overall.
We found that:
Whilst we found the practice was not in breach of regulations, the provider should:
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
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Grange Medical Centre on 2 September 2015. The practice was rated as good overall; however it was rated as requires improvement in relation to providing effective services to all the population groups it serves. In addition whilst the practice was found to be good in relation to providing responsive services, there were some areas which we informed the practice should be improved.
Following on from this inspection the practice provided us with an action plan and supporting evidence which detailed the improvements they had made to their services to ensure that these were effective and met the needs of the population it serves. This evidence was examined via a desktop review and focused inspection of the practice carried out on 12 December 2016. This report reflects the findings of this review and inspection into the effective and responsive delivery of services within the practice.
The full comprehensive report which followed our inspection in September 2015 can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Grange Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Our key findings from the review we carried out were as follows:
The practice had put in place a programme of clinical audits into subject areas which included minor surgery, anticoagulation and cancer – non two weeks waits. Some audits had been carried out over a number of cycles. This enabled the effectiveness of actions to be monitored and progress to be tracked. Audits followed a consistent format and fully recorded outcomes and recommendations for improvement.
The practice had put in place a system for monitoring and controlling hypnotic medication prescribing (hypnotics are a class of medications whose primary function is to induce sleep and are used in the treatment of sleeplessness and insomnia). From January 2016 to October 2016 we saw evidence to show that prescribing for one form of these medications had been reduced by 13%.
Nurse appointments were scheduled with the appropriate length of time for the activity in line with the Royal College of Nursing guidance. This was monitored via audit to assure compliance.
Multidisciplinary team meetings had been formally and comprehensively minuted and recorded details of actions to be taken and responsibilities with regard to who was to lead in the delivery of these actions.
The practice had developed new processes and approaches to improve patient contact and access. This included the installation of a new telephone system to enable calls to be handled in a more efficient and effective manner.
Staff kept patients informed if appointments were running late via the telephone tannoy system and a white board located in the waiting room.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Grange Medical Centre on 2 September 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
We saw an area of outstanding practice:
However there were areas of practice where the provider should make improvements:
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We saw that steps had been taken to encourage patient feedback as the practice had an established patient reference group. Feedback from the patient reference group meetings was available at all three sites.
During our inspection we were able to meet with four members of the patient reference group who were happy with the service they received from the practice. Comments included:
'Care has improved as you have a choice of GPs (General Practitioners).'
'There is a lower area at the side of reception which is important. My husband is a wheelchair user.'
We spoke with five patients following our inspection who were generally happy with the service; however concerns were raised regarding the length of time to an appointment and the attitude of some of the reception staff. Comments included:
'If you are ill that day or you've got a problem and they say you've got to wait two weeks or nine days it's not good enough.'
'Sometimes I'm waiting weeks to get an appointment with the doctor.'
We saw that issues with the appointment system had been identified by the practice following a review of complaints and the practice were exploring different options to improve access to appointments.