We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Apples 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 Apples Medical Centre, you can give feedback on this service.
We carried out a focused desktop inspection of The Apples Medical Centre on 2 August 2016 to assess whether the practice had made the improvements in providing safe care and services.
We had previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Apples Medical Centre on 27 August 2015 when we rated the practice as good overall. The practice was rated as requires improvement for providing safe care. This was because a risk assessment for the control and prevention of Legionella had not been completed.
We asked the provider to send a report of the improvements they would make to comply with the regulations they were not meeting at that time. The practice is now able to demonstrate that they are meeting the regulations. The practice is now rated as good for providing safe care and the overall rating remains as good.
This report should be read in conjunction with the full inspection report dated 5 November 2016.
Our key finding across the area we inspected was as follows:
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Apples Medical Centre on 27 August 2015.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.
Importantly the provider must :
Ensure that risk assessments in relation to Legionella have been completed.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
The Apples Medical Centre, East Mill Lane, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 3DG provides primary medical services to people living in Sherborne, Dorset and the surrounding areas. The practice had no branch surgeries. The service provider was registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities; Diagnostic and screening procedures, Family Planning, Maternity and midwifery services, Surgical Procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. There was a small dispensary which catered for patients who needed medication, appliances and dressings who lived more than one mile from their nearest pharmacy. At the time of our inspection there were approximately 5163 patients registered at the service with a team of 4 GPs. In addition there were nurse practitioners, nurses, and health care assistants. People who used the practice also had access to community staff including district nurses, community psychiatric nurses, health visitors and midwives.
Patients spoke very positively about the staff employed at the practice and the level of care they received. Patients told us they felt that the practice was safe. They told us that care was given to them in accordance with their wishes and opportunities were given for informed decision making. Patients told us they felt the practice was responsive to their needs. For example, patients said that an urgent appointment could always be obtained on the day they contacted the practice and they could usually see their named GP for non-urgent visits. This was reflective of the information provided on the practice website and within the practice welcome pack.
Patients told us about their experiences of the practice. All of the responses from patients we spoke to on the day, from the 26 comment cards left for us and within the practice’s own patient survey 2012/13 were very positive.
There was evidence that learning from incidents, significant events and investigations took place and appropriate changes were implemented to improve the practice and patient experiences.
As part of our inspection we took a GP as part of our team. They evidenced that the practice was effective in the way it provided care to people. In addition to the evidence obtained by our inspection team, the supporting data and documentation we reviewed about the practice demonstrated the practice performed very well when compared with all other practices within the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
We saw the practice was well led, with a clear leadership structure in operation. The staff we spoke with spoke highly of the management within the practice and told us they felt supported in their roles. Supporting information reviewed during our inspection demonstrated the practice had appropriate systems in place that regularly monitored the safety and effectiveness of the care provided.