The Arrival Practice

We carried out an announced inspection at the Arrival Practice on 16 – 21 June. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

The ratings for the key questions are as follows:

Safe – Requires Improvement

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Outstanding

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 1 June 2016, the practice was rated Good for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Arrival Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection following changes in regulatory history.

How we carried out the inspection/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 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 Good overall

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that generally kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm, however we identified some issues during the inspection that required action.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The provider had built very strong relationships with local services to integrate their patients from asylum seeker and refugee background into the local community.
• The practice had an excellent working relationship with interpreters so that if needed an interpreter could be provided on demand or would be pre-booked for a patient when attending an appointment.
• The provider worked with patients and interpreters to create a cookbook with recipes from around the world with aim of breaking down barriers within the community.
• The provider worked closely with other services to look after the carers registered at the practice.
• The practice invested in technology called Accurx which worked alongside Google Translate so that patients received text messages about their appointments and other information in their native language.
• The practice has achieved a significantly higher satisfaction than the England average for how easy it was to get through to someone at their GP practice and to make an appointment.
• They had also achieved significantly higher results than the local CCG and England average for the overall experience of making an appointment and with their GP practice appointment times.
• The practice received praise from a national housing company who provide housing for asylum seekers and refugees, thanking them for the support they provided for this patient group throughout the pandemic
• Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council wrote to the practice to thank them for their support with the Afghan Relocation Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. They praised the care provided as excellent and that all the families are very happy with the levels of service being provided.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Maintain the action plan put in place to ensure safeguarding systems, processes and practices are implemented and communicated to staff.
• Monitor the competence of its non-medical prescribers
• Maintain the action plan put in place for structured medication reviews
• Ensure appropriate emergency medication is held and have a system in place to monitor stock level and expiry dates

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