Background to this inspection
Updated
2 July 2021
Wimbledon Medical Practice is a GP practice which is part of Merton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). It is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities: treatment of disease disorder or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and surgical procedures. The practice was registered with CQC in June 2019. It took over from a predecessor practice, and the initial performance results were those carried over from that practice.
The practice has approximately 10,110 patients. The practice has a significantly higher proportion of working age people than the national average, 10% of the practice population is over 65 and the practice looks after patients in care homes and sheltered and supported accommodation.
On a national scale of deprivation from 1 to 10 the practice population group has a rating of 10 (is amongst the least deprived).
The practice is located in an NHS managed property. There are other community services in the building (sexual health and health visitors). All of the clinical rooms are on the ground floor and entrances and toilet facilities are accessible to patients with disabilities.
The practice is operated by one lead GP. There are three salaried GPs and one long term locum GP. There are two female nursing staff. The practice is a teaching practice and hosts medical students and qualified doctors training to be GPs.
The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available from 8.30am till 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am till 5.30pm on Fridays. Extended hours appointments are available from 7am to 8am on Mondays and Fridays and from 6.30pm to 8pm on a Thursday. The practice offers telephone consultations and same day appointments. Appointments can be booked by telephone and online.
Patients are directed to contact 111 if they require medical assistance out of hours. The practice telephone line connects directly to the out of hour’s service when closed.
Updated
2 July 2021
We carried out an announced review at Wimbledon Medical Practice on 27 May 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
Safe - Good
Effective - Good
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led - Good
We inspected Wimbledon Medical Practice on 29 October 2019 and rated it as good overall. We rated the practice as good for all key questions apart from Effective, which we found to require improvement for the population groups People with long term conditions, Working age people and People experiencing poor mental health).
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for the practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this review
This review was a focused review of information, without undertaking a site visit, to follow up on:
- effectiveness of clinical care, as measured by the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and against national targets for screening and immunisations
- improvements in record-keeping on recruitment, prescribing of high risk medicines, and on safety alerts
- staff safeguarding training
- appraisals for salaried GPs
- improvement in the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.
How we carried out the review
Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our work differently.
We requested evidence from the practice and and reviewed it without spending time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
Our findings
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
We have rated this practice as Good overall. We have rated the practice as Good for all but one of the population groups. Only the population group Working age people remains as requires improvement.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The population group Working age people remains rated requires improvement because the evidence that practice has improved cervical screening uptake is not clear.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- continue to improve patient care.
- introduce an oversight mechanism for high risk medicine prescribing, as a failsafe to identify any patients who have not had necessary checks and to provide assurance that policy is adhered to.
- continue to improve the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.
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