North Darnall Health Centre

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at North Darnall Health Centre on 19 and 20 July 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good. The rating for each key question is:

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring – Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Good

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection of a new provider who took over the location in June 2022.

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 and telephone 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.
• Requesting staff to complete a short questionnaire.
• A short visit to the practice to review the premises and speak to staff.

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:

• 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. Clinical searches and medical records we reviewed mostly showed effective management and monitoring of patients with long-term conditions although there were some areas that required review.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect.
• 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-centred care.

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

• Continue to improve uptake of the national screening programmes.
• Improve the medication review procedure and ensure all monitoring and medication risks are documented as part of the review.
• Continue with the work to improve the management of patients diagnosed with asthma with regard to the prescribing of rescue inhalers and access to steroid cards.
• Continue with the work commenced to improve the prescribing of hypnotic medication.
• Take steps to improve confidentiality at the reception desk.
• Improve the oversight of administration tasks on the clinical system and ensure they are actioned in a timely manner as per the practice protocol.

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