Background to this inspection
Updated
10 May 2021
Abbey Road Medical Practice is a GP practice situated within the London Borough of Newham and is in the administrative boundaries of NHS Newham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The practice is located at 28a Abbey Road, Stratford, London, E15 3LT and provides general medical services to approximately 10,200 under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract.
The practice shares the building with a dental practice which operates on the first floor of the building. The nearest stations are Abbey Road and Stratford High Street on the DLR or Stratford International (Underground and South eastern Rail) and there is onsite parking including disabled bay parking. The building is purpose built and provides step free access, and automatic doors with wheelchair and general access to the entrance and reception and waiting areas.
The practice clinical team are three male GP partners collectively providing 24 sessions, three salaried female GPs providing 10 sessions, one full time female GP Registrar providing eight sessions, one full time female nurse prescriber, one full time female healthcare assistant and three part time practice pharmacists. The non-clinical team are a full-time practice manager and a team of administrative and reception staff working a range of full and part time hours, including care navigators. The practice is a training practice which supports the training of student doctors and nurses.
The opening hours are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 8am to 8pm, and Thursday and Friday from 8am to 6.30pm. Appointments are available from 8.30am to 12.30pm and 3pm to 6pm daily. Emergency appointments are available Monday to Friday on a first come first served basis between 8.30am and 9.30am by telephone or walk in. Extended hours appointments are available Monday to Wednesday evenings 6.30pm to 8pm. Saturday appointments are available at a nearby “buddy” practice. Out-of-hours services are communicated by calling the Newham GP Cooperative out of hours service on a dedicated telephone line when the practice is closed. Calls to the surgery number are signposted to the out of hours service or by calling NHS Direct on111. Information is provided on the practice telephone line and on the practice notice board.
The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, family planning, surgical procedures and maternity and midwifery services. The practice provides a range of general medical services including chronic disease management and NHS health checks. The practice also provides health promotion services including, cervical screening, childhood immunisations, contraception including IUD (coil) fitting and family planning and is a LARC Hub service to local practices.
Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered a choice of either the main GP location or the nearby “buddy” practice.
Updated
10 May 2021
We carried out an announced review at Abbey Road Medical Practice on 20 April 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
Set out the ratings for each key question
Safe - Good
Effective - Good
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led – Good
Following our previous inspection on 18 November 2019, the practice was rated Good overall and for the key questions effective, caring, responsive and well-led. The practice was rated requires improvement for providing safe services and issued a requirement notice for Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment and Regulation 17 Good governance.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Abbey Road Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this review
This review was a focused review of information without undertaking a site visit to follow up on breaches of Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment and Regulation 17 Good governance. At the previous inspection we found:
- Most systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse were in place, but some had gaps including health and safety and staff checks.
- The way the practice was led and managed generally promoted the delivery of high- quality, person-centre care. Some areas of governance and risk management needed reviewing which was underway.
We also followed up on areas we identified the practice should improve at the last inspection. Specifically:
- Review and embed arrangements to ensure improved performance for clinical cancer care indicators.
- Review and improve arrangements to ensure formalised clinical oversight for practice nurse prescribers and pharmacists.
How we carried out the 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 reviews differently.
This review was carried out without visiting the location by requesting documentary 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 have rated this practice as Good overall and for all population groups.
The practice had made the necessary improvements to the delivery of care to ensure patients were kept safe and protected from avoidable harm:
- The practice had improved and remedied safety concerns including fire safety, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), and premises safety including boiler and fixed wiring.
- Arrangements were in place to ensure effective systems for staff HR checks including DBS, staff occupational and health immunity status, and clinician’s registration with the appropriate body checks.
- There was oversight of role specific and mandatory staff training, including to ensure fire marshals cover across the rota.
- Published data cancer care performance indicators had improved since our previous inspection including urgent referrals detection rate and screening for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.
- The practice implemented arrangements to assure itself of sufficiently comprehensive, effective and sustainable systems and processes. For example, the practice engaged input from external consultants where appropriate and reviewed processes for risk management including health and safety, HR procedures reviews, and relating to Infection Protection and Control during the pandemic.
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.
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