Abbey Medical Practice

Updated 6 March 2024

Abbey Medical Practice is located in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire at:

Mannock Medical Centre

Irthlingborough Road

Wellingborough

Northamptonshire

NN8 1LT

The practice has a branch surgery at:

Broad Street Surgery

6 Broad Street

Earls Barton

Northampton

NN6 0ND

The branch surgery was not visited as part of this inspection.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities, diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice offers services from both a main practice and a branch surgery. Patients can access services at either surgery.

The practice is situated within the Northamptonshire Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 25,255. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices that enables them to work with other practices in the area to deliver care.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fifth decile (5 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 83% White, 7% Asian, 6% Black, 4% Mixed, and 1% Other.

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

There are 7 GP partners and 3 salaried GPs who provide cover at both practices. The nursing team consists of 6 advanced nurse practitioners, 4 practice nurses, 2 diabetic nurses and 3 health care assistants. There is a clinical pharmacist and a healthy minds practitioner. The clinical team are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. There is a practice manager, operations and quality manager and a reception team leader who provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday at the main site and from 8am to 5.30pm at the branch site. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by The Wellingborough GP Enhanced Access service, where appointments are available from 6.30pm to 8pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 12pm on weekends and bank holidays.

When the practice is closed, out of hours services can be accessed via the NHS 111 service.

Updated 6 March 2024

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Abbey Medical Practice on 27 November. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring – not inspected, rating of good carried forward from the previous inspection.

Responsive - good

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 4 and 5 October 2016, 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 Abbey Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• 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 found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• The practice had listened to patients and made improvements to how patients could access the practice and make appointments.
• Feedback from patients was pre-dominantly positive about the practice and the staff, particularly those who answered the telephones.
• The National GP Patient survey showed an upward trend in patient satisfaction from the previous year in all 4 indicators which all scored higher than local and national averages.
• Feedback from staff was pre-dominantly positive about working in the practice and the support they received from the GPs and practice management.
• The practice were below targets for the uptake of cervical screening. Measures had been put in place to increase the uptake.
• Some patients were overdue monitoring of their conditions. The practice had made attempts to contact them but no further measures were put in place to encourage engagement.

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

• Continue to take measures to increase the uptake of cervical screening.
• Explore measures to encourage patients to engage and undertake monitoring of their conditions.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care