Background to this inspection
Updated
21 August 2020
Dr V C Tiguti & Partners is located in North Staffordshire and provides services from their main practice at Old Road, Upper Tean, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, ST10 4EG and their branch practice at Blythe Bridge Health Centre, Uttoxeter Road, Blythe Bridge, ST11 9NT. The practices have good transport links and there is a dispensary at the main practice.
The provider is registered with the CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic & screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, maternity and midwifery services, family planning and surgical procedures.
Dr V C Tiguti & Partners is situated within the North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to approximately 6,094 patients under the terms of a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. A GMS contract is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services to the local community.
The practice employs two male GP partners and one female GP partner, one GP Registrar, four practice nurses, a health care support assistant, a practice manager and assistant practice manager, two dispensers and six administrative staff covering a range of hours.
The practice area is one of low deprivation when compared with the national and local CCG area. Demographically 16.5% of the practice population is under 18 years old which is lower than the national average of 20.6% and 28.5% are aged over 65 years which is higher the national average of 17.4%. The general practice profile shows that the percentage of patients with a long-standing health condition is 62.2% which is higher than the local CCG average of 56% and the national average of 51%. The National General Practice Profile describes the practice ethnicity as being 98.6% white British, 0.6% Asian, 0.2% black, 0.6% mixed and 0.1% other non-white ethnicities. Average life expectancy is 81 years for men and 84 years for women compared to the national average of 79 and 83 years respectively.
Updated
21 August 2020
We previously carried out an announced, comprehensive inspection of Dr V C Tiguti & Partners on 18 December 2019 and rated the practice as good overall and for effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:
- Used sharps boxes had not been collected within three months after first use, even if not full.
- When the manufacturer’s maximum temperature range had been exceeded in fridges used to store vaccines, the practice had not followed the processes detailed in their cold chain policy to ensure that vaccines were safe to administer.
- A risk assessment had not been completed to mitigate potential risks for the storage of prescription stationery in a printer at the branch practice.
- Changes made to procedures as a result of a significant event had not been reflected in the standard operating procedure for the dispensing of medicines.
We also made two best practice recommendations:
- Embed into practice the newly implemented systems to review significant events over time and monitor and track Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts.
- Develop a clear practice vision in collaboration with staff, patients and external partners.
The full comprehensive report for the inspection in December 2019 can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr V C Tiguti & Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
We did not visit the practice on this occasion, but requested information from the practice and carried out an announced desk-based focused inspection on 4 August 2020. This was to confirm that the practice had implemented the required changes as identified at our previous inspection on 18 December 2019. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- Information sent to us by the provider
- Information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services.
We have rated this practice as good in safe and overall.
We found that:
- A system was in place for checking that sharps boxes were collected within three months after first use.
- Action had been taken to ensure the safe care of patients who may have received vaccines outside of the manufacturer’s temperature range. Systems had been put in place to mitigate the risk of the issue occurring again.
- Locks had been added to printers used for the storage of prescription stationery.
- The standard operating procedure for the dispensing of medicines had been updated to reflect learning from a significant event.
Additional improvements had been made since our last inspection in response to best practice recommendations:
- The newly implemented system to track MHRA alerts had been embedded into practice.
- A clear practice vision in collaboration with staff had been developed.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Embed into practice the systems to review significant events over time
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care