Mendip Vale Medical Group - Coniston

Updated 26 November 2021

Coniston Medical Practice is located in a suburban area of Bristol at:

The Parade

Coniston Road

Patchway

Bristol

BS34 5TF

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

The practice is situated within the Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of about 10,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices The Stokes Primary Care Network (PCN).

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the middle of the decile (six of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 93.2% White, 3.1% Asian, 1.4% Black, 1.8% Mixed, and 0.4% Other.

There is a team of three GPs who provide cover for the practices. The practice has a team of three nurses who provide nurse-led clinics for long-term conditions of use of both the main and the branch locations. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. The practice manager and business manager are based at the location to provide managerial oversight.

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 the GP location.

• The practice offers early morning appointments upon request but does not provide out of hour’s services to its patients. Contact information for this service is available in the practice and on the website.

Updated 26 November 2021

We carried out an announced inspection at Coniston Medical Practice on 11 October 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Well-led - Good

At our previous inspection on 1 October 2019, the practice was rated Requires Improvement overall. It was rated Requires Improvement for safe and well-led services, but Good for effective, caring and responsive. The practice was found in breach of regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment and Regulation 17 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Good governance. The practice needed to establish and embed effective quality assurance systems and processes and ensure compliance with the regulations.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection to follow up on:

• Safe and well-led. We also looked at effective as part of our published methodology for follow-up inspections.
• Practice meeting the compliance with Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment and Regulation 17 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Good governance.
• Ratings from the caring and responsive key questions were carried from our inspection in October 2019, when both key questions were rated as Good.

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 provider had made improvements in all areas identified at the previous inspection.
• 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-centred care.

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

• Maintain effective monitoring and oversight of medication that are high risk and those prescribed for long-term conditions.
• Continiue to promote cervical screening to meet the national targets.

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