The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Dr Hutchings and Partners

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

8a Ray Park Avenue, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 8DS (01628) 622023

Provided and run by:
Dr Hutchings and Partners

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment:25 June 2026. Dr Hutchings and Partners (Rosemead Surgery) is a GP practice which delivers services to approximately 7,700 people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 74% White, 18% Asian, 3% Mixed, 2% Black and 3% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 10 decile (10 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 practice, the context the practice was working within and how this impacted service delivery. Where relevant, further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.

SAFE - Staff kept facilities clean. However, the practice was unable to demonstrate that equipment and premises were maintained appropriately, to ensure people were kept safe. Further work was also needed in the assessment and management of the risk of infection, to control the risk of it spreading. Records of training and recruitment did not always show that staff were adequately trained or experienced for their roles.

EFFECTIVE - Staff supported people to live healthier lives, monitoring their care and treatment to ensure they received positive and consistent outcomes.

CARING - Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion, and respected their privacy and dignity.

RESPONSIVE - People could access care, treatment and support when they needed it. 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.

WELL-LED - The practice 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. However, governance processes were not always clear, effective or working as intended. Policies were not always followed and identified risks were not always mitigated. Leaders were unable to effectively demonstrate oversight processes for safe premises or working processes.

We found a breach of regulation in relation to good governance. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment. We plan to carry out a full comprehensive assessment within the next 12 months.

We have not revisited Dr Hutchings and Partners as part of this review because it was able to demonstrate that it was meeting the standards without the need for a visit.

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Dr Hutchings and Partners on 27 April 2016. The practice was rated as requires improvement for providing safe care and well led services and good for being effective, caring and responsive. The practice was rated as requires improvement overall. This was because we found that there was not always clear documentation of significant events or of the meetings where these were discussed; the practice’s significant events policy was not followed and not all staff attended the meetings. The practice did not carry out annual reviews of significant events to identify trends. In addition, there was not always adequate monitoring and mitigation of risks relating to fire, gas and electrical appliance safety. It was also found that the monitoring of training was weak, and not all staff had completed up to date training relevant to their roles, such as safeguarding children and adults, health and safety and infection control.

Following the inspection we asked the provider to send a report of the changes they would make to comply with the regulations they were not meeting at that time in relation to significant events, premises safety and staff training.

In addition to the regulation breach, during the inspection in April 2016, we made recommendations of best practice to address some minor areas of concern. Whilst the practice was rated as good for providing effective and responsive services, we recommended that the practice reviewed its decision making process for exception reporting of some patients with long-term conditions. (Exception reporting is the removal of patients from Quality and Outcomes Framework calculations where, for example, the patients are unable to attend a review meeting or certain medicines cannot be prescribed because of side effects). We also recommended that they took steps to enable patients with disabilities, hearing difficulties and those whose first language is not English, to access the surgery services more easily.

We carried out a desktop inspection of Dr Hutchings and Partners in December 2016 to assess whether the practice had made the recommended improvements. We found the practice was able to demonstrate that they were meeting the standards for safe care and well led services. In particular;

  • There were systems in place to ensure that learning from significant events was clearly documented and disseminated throughout the practice to all relevant staff.

  • Risks relating to fire, gas and portable electrical appliance safety had been assessed and mitigated.

  • All team members were up to date on statutory training to ensure the safety and wellbeing of patients and staff.

  • The practice provided evidence that they had improved the governance arrangements for recruitment and had requested suitable references for new personnel.

The practice was also able to demonstrate they were working towards improving their exception reporting figures through increased communication with their patients. They had initiated a text reminder service in November 2016 to call patients in for annual review and commenced a personalised telephone reminder service for some patient groups. These systems were reported to be working well, although the initiatives had occurred too recently to offer any comparable data. They had also reviewed the patient equality and accessibility issues and had undertaken repair work to the automatic entrance doors to make access easier for less able bodied patients. They had access to a telephone based interpretation service and all staff were aware how to access it for their patients. Although a hearing loop was not yet available, the GP partners had agreed it was necessary and the practice manager was looking at availability and pricing.

We have updated our ratings to reflect these changes. This report should be read in conjunction with the full inspection report.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

27 April 2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Hutchings and Partners (Rosemead Surgery) on 27 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, to report incidents and near misses, and action was taken to improve safety. Documentation of significant events was not always thorough and learning was not always shared with the multidisciplinary team in line with the practice policy. Annual review of significant events did not take place to enable identification of trends.
  • Although risks to patients who used services were assessed, the systems and processes to address these risks were not always implemented well enough to ensure patients were kept safe. For example, there were not adequate processes for mitigating and reviewing risks relating to fire safety, gas safety, training, and portable electrical appliance testing.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance and delivered effective care and treatment.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
  • The practice had not taken all steps to ensure that it was accessible to people with restricted mobility, hearing difficulties, and who did not speak English.
  • The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity, but some were not followed.
  • There was a committed and hardworking team of staff leading the practice. The practice were committed to delivering high quality care and promote good outcomes for patients.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

  • Introduce robust processes to ensure significant events are fully recorded, analysis of trends takes place, and ensure learning is shared with all appropriate staff.
  • Ensure appropriate actions are taken to mitigate risks relating to fire and gas safety.
  • Ensure portable electrical appliance testing is carried out.

  • Ensure that all staff training is up to date.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Take steps to enable patients with disabilities, hearing difficulties, and whose first language is not English to access the surgery services more easily.
  • Ensure documentation of formal references.
  • Review exception reporting and ensure patients receive appropriate care and treatment within national guidelines for exception reporting.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice