• Remote clinical advice

Bedford On Call Limited

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Elstow Medical Centre, Abbey Fields, Elstow, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK42 9GP (01234) 889088

Provided and run by:
Bedford on Call Limited

Important: This service was previously registered at a different address - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 17 December 2021

Bedford On Call Ltd provides a range of primary medical services, from seven satellite clinics in Bedford and the surrounding towns and villages.

It provides services from these sites, also known as base practices, from 6.30pm to 8pm Monday to Friday. It also provides services from 8.30am to 2pm on Saturdays and 8.30am to 11.30am on Sundays and bank holidays. The base practices are registered GP practices.

Patients who are registered at any practice within the Bedford clinical commissioning group (CCG) area are able to access a GP or practice nurse at any of these sites. At least two base practices are open every evening and weekend.

The senior management team consists of a council of directors and operational managers. The service also has lead clinicians, nurses and a pharmacist. All management and governance functions are completed at the head office at Elstow Medical Centre. However, no regulated activities are provided from here.

GP practices are able to book appointments with the service, through a remote booking system.

Bedford On Call Ltd employ some nursing and reception staff to greet patients at the satellite clinics, other staff, including GPs are contracted on a self-employed basis.

Each base practice has disabled access and parking available and consultation rooms are all on the ground floor.

The practice provides family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely, and diagnostic and screening procedures as their regulated activities.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 17 December 2021

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Bedford On Call Limited on 10 October 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

The provider was rated as good overall; however, we found a breach of regulations which meant the service was rated requires improvement for providing effective services.

The report for the October 2019 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bedford On Call Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

This inspection carried out on 3 December 2021 was a desk-based review to confirm that the practice had carried out its plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach of regulations that we identified at our previous inspection in October 2019.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • information sent to us from the provider.
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services.

We rated the practice as good for providing effective services because:

  • Quality of care and outcomes for patients were monitored through a programme of clinical audits.
  • Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care