Old Road Medical Practice

Updated 19 July 2023

Old Road Medical practice is located in Clacton-on-sea at:

145-149 Old Road

Clacton-on-sea

Essex

CO15 3AU

The practice has a branch surgery at:

103 Clacton Road

St Osyth

Clacton-on-sea

Essex

CO16 8PP

We did not visit the branch surgery as part of this inspection.

The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice offers services from both a main practice and a branch surgery. Patients can access services at either surgery.

The practice is situated within the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of about 9,800. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of five local GP practices.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is the lowest decile (1 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 1.1% Asian, 96.9% White, 1.1% Black, 1.1% Mixed, and 1.1% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more female patients registered at the practice compared to males.

There is a team of 4 GP partners who provide cover at both practices. The practice has a team of 10 nurses and healthcare assistants who provide nurse led clinics at 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 office manager are based at the main location to provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open between 8am to 6:30pm pm Monday to Friday. Extended access service access is available 6:30 -8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm Saturday provided by the local primary care network practices. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111 for healthcare outside the practice opening hours.

Updated 19 July 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Old Road Medical Practice on 1st June 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - good

Well-led - outstanding

When this practice registered with us, it inherited the regulatory history and ratings of its predecessor. This is the first inspection at Old Road Medical practice under the new registered provider. When we previously inspected the practice in May 2017 they were rated as good overall. Under our continuing regulatory history policy, the rating of good was inherited.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this first inspection of a registered provider in line with our inspection priorities.

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 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).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.
• Staff questionnaires.

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 and treatment 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.
• Patients told us they could access care and treatment in a timely way. This was reflected by their patients in the national GP survey responses.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
• There was understanding, inclusive, and effective leadership at all levels.
• Leaders at all levels demonstrated high levels of experience, capacity and capability, needed to deliver excellent sustainable care.
• There was an embedded system of leadership development and succession planning, which included successful leadership strategies to sustain service delivery and develop a caring culture.
• Leaders understood the issues, challenges, and priorities of their practice population and that of their local primary care network partners in their locality.
• We found a strong collaboration, across the practice teams to support a common focus of improving the quality and sustainability of patients care and experiences.
• We saw governance procedures were proactively reviewed, and reflected best practice.
• There was a demonstrated commitment to best practice performance, and risk management systems and processes.
• The practice reviewed and ensured that staff at all levels had the skills and knowledge to perform their roles effectively.

We found when problems were identified they acted quickly, openly, and learned from them.

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

• Continue the work underway to reduce the antibacterial, and antibiotic prescribing.
• Continue the work underway to reduce the elevated hypnotic, and elevated multiple psychotropic prescribing.
• Continue and improve the uptake of childhood immunistations and cervical screening.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services