We carried out a review of the data available to us about Tinkers Lane Surgery on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Tinkers Lane Surgery, you can give feedback on this service.
This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previously inspected on 10 December 2018 – rated Good overall with Requires Improvement for Effective services).
The key question at this inspection (and rating) is:
Are services Effective? – Good
We carried out an announced focused inspection at Tinkers Lane Surgery on 8 January 2020, to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach in Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014: Safe care and treatment.
During this inspection we reviewed areas where the provider must and should make improvements, identified in our previous inspection (10 December 2018) and our key lines of enquiry for ‘Effective’ care. This report and supporting Evidence Tables cover our findings in relation to these.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
The full comprehensive report on the December 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Tinkers Lane Surgery on our website at
At the last inspection in December 2018 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective services because:
We have continued to rate this practice as good overall.
We found that the provider had satisfactorily addressed these areas. The practice is rated as good for providing effective services because:
In addition, we saw the practice had acted on the shoulds identified at the last inspection.
There were areas where the provider should make improvements:
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Tinkers Lane Partnership on 10 December 2018 as part of our inspection programme.
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
We have rated this practice as good overall. We have rated then as good for the provision of safe, caring, responsive and well-led services, and as requires improvement for the provision of effective services. We rated the population groups; older people, families, children and young people, working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances make them vulnerable, and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia), as good. We rated the population groups: people with long-term conditions, and working age people (including those recently retired and students), as Requires Improvement.
We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective services because:
We also found that:
The areas where the provider must make improvements are:
In addition, the provider should:
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced follow up inspection at Tinkers Lane Surgery on 15 December 2015. We carried out this inspection to check that the practice was meeting the regulations and to consider whether sufficient improvements had been made.
Our previous inspection in March 2015 found breaches of regulations relating to the safe delivery of services. There were also concerns relating to all domains. The overall rating of the practice in March 2015 was requires improvement. Following the inspection, we received an action plan which set out what actions were to be taken to achieve compliance. At the inspection in December 2015, we found the practice had made significant improvements since our last inspection in March 2015 and that they were meeting all of the regulations which had previously been breached.
Overall the practice is rated as good.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
The areas where the provider should make improvement are:
Review their procedures for the audit and security of prescription pads.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Tinkers Lane Surgery on 23 March 2015. Overall the practice is rated as REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT.
Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:
• Urgent appointments were usually available on the day they were requested. However, patients said there were waits of up to two weeks for non-urgent appointments, there was difficulty getting through to the practice when phoning to make an appointment and waits of up to 40 minutes after appointment times.
• Few clinical audits had been carried out. There was limited evidence to demonstrate that audits were driving performance to improve patient outcomes.
• Data showed patient outcomes for March 2015 demonstrated an improvement from 2013/14 which had been overall below average for the local Clinical Commissioning Group.
• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of those relating to some recruitment checks.
• 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.
• The surgery has worked with Carers Support Wiltshire in recent years, obtaining their Gold Award, followed by Gold Plus and this year was working to achieving the new ‘Gold’ award. The practice held two to three carers’ clinics a year and carers' events twice a year.
• A number of staff were ‘dementia friends’ and there were plans for more staff to undertake the training.
Importantly, the provider MUST:
In addition the provider SHOULD:
• Ensure the plan to undertake staff appraisal is implemented.
• Develop processes to enable management to lead through learning
• Develop and monitor processes for demonstrating the achievement of quality care standards for the management of common long term conditions.
• Ensure there are risk assessments for emergency medicines not held in the practice.
• Develop an audit schedule to ensure clinical audit is carried out regularly.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
On the 18 December 2013 we undertook a further inspection of Tinkers Lane Surgery. We found the practice had developed systems and processes which ensured the three essential standards of quality and safety had been met. We reviewed processes and records relating to safeguarding, infection control and the management of medicines. We spoke with the acting practice manager, infection control lead and six members of staff.
Patients were protected from the risk of infection because the practice had systems in place to manage the risks. We found that staff had received infection control training, a comprehensive audit had been undertaken and appropriate cleaning schedules and monitoring was in place.
The practice had and effective system to protect patients from the risk of abuse. Staff had received safeguarding training and had been given safeguarding policies. A whistle blowing policy had also been developed and shared with all staff.
Medicines were stored safely and in line with medicines management guidance by the Department of Health and Royal Pharmaceutical Society. We found appropriate medicines management policies and medication checks were undertaken.
We spoke with six patients who attended the practice the day of our inspection. All of the patients were complimentary about the staff and GP services the practice provided. One person said "The practice is very good. I have been a patient here for 82 years and I feel very safe with the staff".
Patients were not always cared for in an environment that was hygienic and cleanliness was not monitored appropriately. However, patients we spoke with told us that the practice was always clean and tidy.
Patients received appropriate medication reviews. We found that the handling and storage of medications was not always in line with current medicines management guidance.
Patients were asked for their feedback about the service and the practice responded and took action where appropriate.