Dr Watson & Partners Also known as The Friarwood Surgery

Updated 26 January 2024

Dr Watson & Partners (also known as The Friarwood Surgery) is located in Pontefract at:

Friarwood Surgery

Carleton Glen

Pontefract

West Yorkshire

WF8 1SU

This site was visited as part of this inspection activity.

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

The practice is situated within the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, and delivers services to approximately 13,400 patients under the terms of a personal medical services (PMS) contract. It is a member of Pontefract and Knottingley primary care network (PCN). The practice also provides services which were non-NHS and were paid for by the patient, such as insurance claim forms, and vaccination certificates.

Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as 4, on a scale of 1 to 10. Level 1 represents the highest levels of deprivation and level 10 the lowest.

According to the latest available data from the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 95% white, 2% Asian, 1% Mixed, and 2% Black/other non-white ethnic groups.

The practice age profile showed that it had a slightly higher number of older patients when compared to their PCN and other practices in the Wakefield area. Consequently, the practice has a higher number of patients with age related conditions such as hypertension.

The clinical team consists of 6 GP partners, and 4 salaried GPs. Other members of the clinical team include 3 advanced nurse practitioners, 1 advanced care practitioner, 3 practice nurses, 3 healthcare assistants, 2 phlebotomists, 1 pharmacist, and 1 in-house pharmacy technician. Other clinical capacity is provided by PCN pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The clinical team is supported by a practice manager, an assistant practice manager, prescription clerks, secretaries and members of the administration and reception teams. The practice is able to access other PCN support such as a health and wellbeing coach, and additional pharmacy team capacity.

Dr Watson & Partners is also a training practice which supports the development of GP registrars, medical students, and student nurses.

The practice is open between 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including face-to-face consultations, telephone consultations, online access, and home visits.

Extended access is provided locally through PCN working where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Local Care Direct limited.

Updated 26 January 2024

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Watson & Partners on 30 November and 1 December 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good, with most key questions rated good other than responsive which was rated as requires improvement.

Safe – good.

Effective – good.

Caring – good.

Responsive – requires improvement.

Well-led – good.

At the last inspection on 24 September 2015, we rated the practice as outstanding overall, and for the key questions of effective and responsive. This was because:

• Systems were in place to ensure clinicians were kept up to date with guidelines and that guidelines had positively influenced and improved patient outcomes. In addition, the practice had used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes.
• The practice had initiated service improvements for patients above their contractual obligations. It had reviewed the needs of their patient population to secure service improvements to meet these. In addition, patients told us it was easy to access appointments.

At this inspection, we found that those areas previously regarded as outstanding were now generally embedded throughout other GP practices. Whilst the provider had maintained this good practice, the threshold to achieve an outstanding rating had not been reached. In addition, we saw that patient satisfaction regarding access and appointments had shown significant deterioration since 2020/21. We recognise the pressure that practices are currently working under, and the efforts staff are making to maintain levels of access for their patients. At the same time, our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. Although we saw the practice was attempting to improve access, this was not yet reflected in the GP patient survey data or other sources of patient feedback. Therefore, the rating for responsive was requires improvement, as ratings depend on evidence of impact and must reflect the lived experience that people were reporting at the time of inspection.

The practice is therefore now rated good overall.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection due to the length of time since our last inspection.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video and telephone conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short visit to the provider site.
• Staff questionnaires
• Requesting feedback from patients via the ‘share your experience’ link on the CQC website.

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.
• The provider had a programme of quality improvement activities in place which included clinical and non-clinical audits.
• The practice had undertaken several service improvement changes, such as those related to handling test results and document management.
• Child immunisation performance was mostly above national targets.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect, and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Patient feedback in relation to accessing services was mixed. National GP Patient Survey results in relation to access had shown deterioration over recent years. In response to this the provider had taken actions to improve access, but these had yet to be fully embedded and give defined outcomes in patient feedback.
• Staff feedback regarding working at the practice at all levels was positive. In addition, the provider had taken steps to focus on the improvement of staff wellbeing.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• Practice staff had organised and delivered a Halloween themed event to promote the take up of the child nasal flu vaccine.
• The provider had undertaken service reviews, and implemented activities and process changes to increase clinical capacity, and improve access to, and effectiveness of, services.

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

• Address minor concerns regarding medicines monitoring and long-term conditions management identified during the inspection.
• Work to continue to improve cervical screening rates.
• Continue actions to improve patient satisfaction in relation to access and their appointment system.

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