Bridges Medical Practice

Updated 31 January 2024

Bridges Medical Practice is located at West Street, Gateshead, NE8 1AD.

The provider is registered to deliver the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures; maternity and midwifery services; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers a General Medical Services contract (GMS) to a patient population around 7,600 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider Primary Care Network (PCN) which is Gateshead Central South.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the second lowest decile (Two of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

The practice is open between 7.30am to 8pm on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 7.30to 6pm and on Tuesday 8.30am to 6pm.

Out of hours services are provided by 111 and extended access appointments are provided by a local provider, Community Based Care (CBC) where late evening appointments are available Monday to Friday 6.30pm to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm.

Updated 31 January 2024

We carried out a targeted assessment of Bridges Medical Practice in relation to the responsive key question. This assessment was carried out on 10 January 2024 without a site visit. Overall, the practice is rated as Good. We rated the key question of responsive as Outstanding.

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring - Good

Responsive – Outstanding

Well-led – Good

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for the

Bridges Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this review.

We carried out this assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet demand for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers.

We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know colleagues are doing this while demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. In this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. These assessments of the responsive key question include looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement.

How we carried out the assessment

This assessment was carried remotely.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.

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 found that:

We rated responsive as outstanding because;

• The practice had a proactive approach to identifying the needs of patients and responding to them.
• National GP Patient Survey data was consistently high over a number of years including during the COVID-19 restrictions. Data was consistently above local and national averages.
• The practice worked with their patients and Patient Participation Group to identify where they might improve.
• The practice implemented initiatives to improve phone and appointment access and worked towards continuous improvement.
• The practice dealt with complaints in a timely manner and learned from them.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care