- GP practice
Belford Medical Practice
Assessment report published 24 August 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
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.
People's experience of this service
As part of our assessment, we reviewed feedback from people who used the service to understand their views and experience of the service. This included speaking with people using the service at the time of our assessment and reviewing other feedback available to us. People were generally very positive about the quality of their care and treatment. They described how staff treated them with kindness and compassion and respected their privacy. This was mirrored in the results of recent surveys, including the 2026 National GP Patient Survey, which showed 92% of people who responded felt their overall experience was good, compared with a national average of 77%. There was an active patient participation group (PPG) who represented the views of the majority of people using the service. Representatives from the PPG described how leaders made changes because of their feedback, including making it easier for patients to feedback using a feedback form and submission box; to allow for anonymity. Representatives from the PPG told us that leaders at the practice were good at communicating what was going on and utilising social media to share information wider with patients and their families.