Dr Barber and Partners

Updated 10 October 2023

Dr Barber and Partners is located in Northamptonshire at:

Parklands Surgery

Wyminton Road

Rushden

NN10 9EB.

The purpose-built premises also includes a community pharmacy.

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, family planning and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Northamptonshire Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of almost 13,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices known as the East Northants Primary Care Network (PCN). The PCN consists of 10 practices in total working together to provide services to the local population.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is 7 out 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 95.7% White, 1.6% Asian, 1.1% Black, 1.4% Mixed, and 0.2% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages, although there are more older people registered at the practice compared to averages.

Practice staffing consists of 5 GP partners and 2 salaried GPs (male and female). The practice has a team of 5 nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions. In addition, there are two nurse practitioners, a community advanced nurse practitioner, a nursing associate (trainee) and a dedicated nurse administrator. The GPs are supported at the practice by a practice manager and a team of reception/administration staff.

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

Additional extended access is provided locally on a rota basis with the practice’s PCN to provide access between 6.30pm and 8pm on weekday evenings and between 8.30am and 5.00pm on Saturdays. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111 services.

Updated 10 October 2023

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Dr Barber and Partners on 26 September 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe –Good.

Effective – Good.

Caring – Good.

Responsive – Good.

Well-led – Good.

Following our previous inspection on 6 December 2022, the practice was rated Good overall and Good for providing Safe, Effective, Caring and Responsive services. The practice was rates as Requires Improvement for providing Well-Led services.

From the inspection on 6 December 2022, the practice was told they must:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr Barber and Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused follow-up inspection to follow up on the Requires Improvement rating for Well-Led at the last inspection in December 2022. The practice was found to be in breach of Regulation 17 of the Health & Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. A requirement notice was issued.

In December 2022, we rated the practice as Requires Improvement for providing Well-Led services because:

• We found governance systems relating to oversight of staff training needed strengthening.

In addition, we told the provider they should:

• Continue to review staff recruitment systems, particularly those relating to disclosure and Barring Checks (DBS) for non-clinical staff to ensure risks remain minimised.
• Continue to encourage and engage patients to attend for cervical screening.
• Undertake repeat cycle clinical audits to monitor improvements made.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to avoid an on-site visit.

This included:

• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• Reviewing evidence sent in advance of the inspection to demonstrate action taken and improvements made.

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:

• Improvements had been made to management systems to support staff training, reducing risks to patients and staff. Evidence provided demonstrated records of training were well maintained.
• The practice evidenced that DBS checks were undertaken for all staff.
• The practice provided assurance that efforts were being made to improve patient uptake of cervical cancer screening services. For example, patient feedback highlighted that the majority of eligible patients preferred to attend at weekends or outside of normal working hours. In response, the practice was working with the local extended access hub and nurses were providing a Saturday cervical smear clinic. The practice advised this, amongst other initiatives, such as increased advertising on social media and improved information for patients, had resulted in improved uptake. The practice advised an audit of uptake for this service was scheduled for December 2023.
• Evidence provided demonstrated improvements in the use of regular audits to monitor patient safety, quality improvement work and practice systems. For example, we saw there was a schedule for regular medicines safety audits. An audit of patients with Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) had been undertaken to ensure records for patients had been reviewed in the preceding 12 months.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services