The Beaumont Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Beaumont Practice between 27th -30th April 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out an inspection as the provider had changed their registration from a sole practitioner to a partnership and so this was the provider’s first inspection under their current registration.

How we carried out the inspection

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 inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit

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 requires improvement overall.

We rated the practice as inadequate for providing safe services because:

• The practice had not provided care and treatment in a way that kept patients safe. In particular, we found there was unsafe and inappropriate management and monitoring of patients prescribed high-risk medicines and drug safety alerts were not being appropriately actioned. Because of the safety concerns we identified, we served a warning notice under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as the provider was failing to comply with the relevant requirements of Regulation 12, (1), Safe care and treatment, of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing effective services because:

• We were not assured patients prescribed high-risk medicines for long-term conditions and mental health conditions had received all necessary blood tests within appropriate timescales prior to prescribing as per national guidelines. The uptake for cervical screening was also below the national target of 80%.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing well-led services because:

• The practice did not have clear and effective governance processes for managing and monitoring patients being prescribed high risk medicines and actioning drug safety alerts.

We rated the practice as good for providing caring and responsive services because:

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

For the effective domain, we rated older people; people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and families, children and young people as good. We rated people with long-term conditions and people experiencing poor mental health as requires improvement because of unsafe prescribing of high-risk medicines. We rated working age people as requires improvement because the cervical screening uptake rate was below the national target.

For the responsive domain, we rated all population groups as good.

We found two breaches of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way (Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care. (Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The provider should:

• Ensure the outstanding actions set out in the fire risk assessment are completed.
• Continue with efforts to improve the uptake of cervical screening and childhood immunisations.
• Continue with efforts to improve GP patient survey results data.

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