The Care Quality Commission
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Belford Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Croft Field, Belford, Northumberland, NE70 7ER (01668) 213738

Provided and run by:
Belford Medical Practice

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 30 July 2026. Belford Medical Practice is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 4,522 people under a contract held with NHS England. The practice also has a branch site in Seahouses Surgery. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 98.91% White, 0.3% Asian, 0.6% Mixed, 0.1% Black and 0.1% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 6th decile (6 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the service population is relative to others.

This was a focused assessment. We undertook this assessment due to the length of time since our last assessment. We assessed 10 quality statements from across all 5 key questions. This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery. Where relevant, further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.

Staff kept facilities clean and maintained equipment appropriately to ensure people were kept safe. They assessed and managed the risk of infection well and took steps to control the risk of it spreading. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience covering both sites to meet the needs of patients. We identified that not all non-clinical staff were trained in safeguarding to the levels recommended in the latest guidance. In addition, some long-standing non-clinical staff had not been Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checked. The provider told us they would take steps to address this.

Staff supported people to live healthier lives, monitoring their care and treatment to ensure they received positive and consistent outcomes. Services worked in harmony, with people at the centre of their care. Leaders instilled a culture of improvement, where understanding outcomes and exploring best practice is part of everyday work.

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion, and respected their privacy and dignity. People’s wishes and choices were understood and respected and they could live their best lives as independently as possible.

Leaders and staff were alert to discrimination and inequality that could disadvantage groups of people who used the service and sought ways to address any barriers. People, those who support them, and staff could easily access information, advice and advocacy. This supported them in managing and understanding their care and treatment.

The service had a clear vision and strategy, which considered the needs of the people who used their service and the wider community. Staff understood their individual roles and responsibilities. Leaders accounted for the actions, behaviours and performance of staff through governance processes. There were generally effective governance and management systems. Information and data were used appropriately to monitor risk, performance and quality of care.

28/08/2018 to 28/08/2018

During an inspection looking at part of the service

At our previous inspection on 23 January 2018, we rated the practice as good overall, but requires improvement for providing safe services.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Belford Medical Group on 23 January 2018. The overall rating for the practice was good, with all population groups also being rated as good. The practice was rated as requires improvement for the safe key question. The full report on the January 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Belford Medical Group on our website.

This inspection was an announced focussed inspection, carried out on 28 August 2018, to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirement, in relation the breach of regulation that we identified in our previous inspection.

Overall the practice is still rated as good; and now as good for safe.

This report covers our findings in relation to this requirement and additional improvements made since our last inspection.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had made improvements since our last inspection. The breach of legal requirement we identified during our previous inspection had been addressed. The provider had also made other improvements to help strengthen their arrangements for handling medicines in their dispensary.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

23 January 2018

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

At our previous inspection on 7 October 2014, we rated the practice as good overall. At this inspection, we have also rated the practice as good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Belford Medical Practice on 23 January 2018, to check that the provider continues to meet the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had clear systems to manage risk, so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
  • Overall, patients received safe care. However, there were shortfalls in relation to some aspects of the practice’s arrangements for managing medicines such as vaccinations, which could pose a risk to patient safety.
  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care and treatment they provided. Staff ensured that care and treatment was delivered in line with evidence-based guidelines.
  • Results from the NHS National Patient Survey showed patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect, and were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
  • Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • The practice planned and co-ordinated patient care with the wider multi-disciplinary team, to deliver responsive care to patients with complex health needs, or those living in vulnerable circumstances.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat and meet patients’ needs.
  • GP staff held lead roles in the areas of learning disabilities, research and diabetes within the wider health community. They proactively collaborated with their local Clinical Commissioning Group, and other local practices, to influence and drive improvements in the delivery of patient care within the locality.
  • Overall, there were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

  • Feedback from patients about access to appointments and the quality of their care and treatment was consistently very positive. The results of the NHS National GP Patient Survey, published in July 2017, placed the practice in the top five best performing surgeries in the North East, and in the top 20 surgeries nationally. Data from the survey showed patients rated the practice significantly higher for all aspects of care, when compared to the local CCG and national averages. This high level of achievement had been sustained over a number of years. In particular, 100% of patients described their overall experience of this practice as good.
  • The practice had consulted an expert-by-experience from a charity for people with a learning disability, to help them identify what improvements they could make to the services they provided to patients with learning disabilities. Also, following feedback from local dementia awareness professionals, the practice had taken steps to make the premises and their services more accessible to patients with dementia. This included trialing a dementia research kiosk, which facilitates the involvement of patients with dementia, and their carers, in relevant research projects.
  • Staff from the practice actively supported a local dedicated charity, which raises money to provide equipment for patients registered with the practice. For example, over the past 12 months, patients had been able to benefit from the purchase of blood sugar testing and electrocardiograph machines, which meant they were able to receive care and treatment closer to home.

We identified one regulation that was not being met. The provider must:

  • Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients. We identified some shortfalls in relation to the management of medicines, particularly in relation to ensuring that the correct legal authority was in place for non-clinical staff to administer vaccinations.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Review the dispensary’s Standard Operating Procedures to ensure they are fit for purpose, reflect current practices and are fully implemented. In particular, those relating to: monitoring refrigerator temperatures; safe custody of prescriptions; completion of medicine reviews.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

07/10/2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Belford Medical Practice on 7 October 2014.  We inspected the main surgery at Croft Field, Belford, and Northumberland but did not visit the branch surgery at Seahouses Health Centre, James Street Seahouses.

We rated the practice overall as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice provided services to a large geographical and rural area, the services had been designed to meet the needs of the local population
  • Feedback from patients was overwhelmingly positive, they told us staff treated them with respect and kindness.
  • Staff reported feeling supported and able to voice any concerns or make suggestions for improvement.

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

  • A patient centred approach to delivering care and treatment.  All were aware of and sympathetic to, the particular difficulties faced by the local population. The practice had  taken action to bring additional services to patients to help address some of those issues.
  • The practice had a good governance system in place, was well organised and actively sought to learn from performance data, incidents and feedback.
  • The practice actively sought the opinions of staff and patients, actively working with a well-established patient participation group (PPG).

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice