• Doctor
  • GP practice

Heaton Road Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

17-19 Heaton Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE6 1SA (0191) 265 5911

Provided and run by:
Heaton Road Surgery

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Our current view of the service

Good

Updated 3 February 2025

Date of Assessment: 29 May 2025. Heaton Road Surgery is a GP practice and delivers service to 7,214 patients under an APMS contract held with NHS England.

The practice is situated within the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB).

According to the latest available data, the ethnic makeup of the practice area is 84% White, 7% Asian, 4% Black, 2.7% Mixed and 2.3% Other. Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the second lowest decile (2 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery.

The last comprehensive inspection of this service took place in September 2022, when it was rated as good overall and for the key questions effective, caring, responsive and well led. The key question safe was rated as requires improvement. We carried out this assessment on 29 May 2025. The reason for the assessment was in response to the previous inspection which rated the safe key question as requires improvement. The key questions effective, caring, responsive and well led were not re rated.

The service rating for safe has improved to good for this inspection and maintains its overall rating of good.

The service had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. People were protected and kept safe. Staff understood and managed risks. The facilities and equipment met the needs of people, were clean and well-maintained and any risks mitigated. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Staff managed medicines well and involved people in planning any changes. Managers made sure staff received regular appraisals to maintain high-quality care, however some staff mandatory training was not up to date at the time of the inspection.

People's experience of the service

Updated 3 February 2025

People were positive about the quality of their care and treatment. Recent survey results, including from the National GP Patient Survey and the NHS Friends and Family Test, showed people were satisfied with services. In February 2025, 88% of respondents were likely or extremely likely to recommend the GP practice to their friends and family, this had increased to 91% in April 2025.

There was an active patient participation group (PPG) who represented the views of people using the service. Representatives from the PPG described working closely with the Practice and how managers listened to patients, provided regular updates and made positive changes because of feedback. Examples include extending practice hours and implementing a new online booking system to improve access particularly for working patients.

The practice shared a link on their website during the assessment for patients to give feedback on their care. Of the 8 relevant responses 6 were positive and two negative relating to access to the practice via the phone and staff conduct.

Leaders from the aligned care home we spoke with provided positive feedback on the standard of care delivered by the staff to their residents. They described it as excellent person-centred care from a staff team who were always friendly, informative and professional with patients and their families.