Archived: Fusehill Medical Practice

Updated 28 April 2022

Fusehill Medical Practice is registered with CQC to provide Primary Medical Services to approximately 8,300 patients from one location:

• Fusehill Medical Centre, Fusehill Street, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA1 2HE.

We visited this location as part of this inspection.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to the provider group of registered patients of about 8,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is located in modern, purpose-built premises which are accessible for people with disabilities. Limited onsite parking is available and as such the practice encourages patients to reserve this for patients with disabilities. The area covered by the practice is within the city boundaries of Carlisle.

The practice is in an area which is ranked in the fifth most deprived decile. The practice population is in line with national averages, with a slightly lower number of patients over 65 and a slightly higher number of patients aged between the age of five and 18 than the local average.

According to information held on the CQC Insight tool the practice employs 4.4 full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs (which includes 3.1 FTE permanent staff and 1.3 FTE locums); 3.6 FTE nurses; 10 FTE non-clinical and admin staff; and 2.1 FTE direct patient care staff. The percentage of locums used at the practice is 29.1% compared to a local average of 5%.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 97.7% white, 1.5% Asian, 0.6% mixed, 0.1% black and 0.1% other non-white ethnic groups.

The practice is a member of the Carlisle Primary Care Network (PCN), which includes four other GP practices in the city of Carlisle. Extended access is provided locally by Cumbria Health Extended Access (CHEA), where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111 and Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC).

Updated 28 April 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Fusehill Medical Practice on 29 and 31 March 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

The ratings for each key question are:

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to rate the practice following a change to their registration with CQC.

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 Good overall

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.
• 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 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:

• Continue to look for ways to improve access to appointments for patients.
• Continue work aimed at and in order to improve patient feedback around care.
• Investigate whether patients who have been marked as having had a medication review completed have had all their medicines reviewed.
• Improve the identification of carers on the practice list.

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