Branston & Heighington Family Practice

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Branston and Heighington Family Practice on 28 June and 4 July 2023 to review and rate the service following an inspection on 9 November 2022 when the practice was rated as Inadequate overall and placed in special measures.

At the November 2022 inspection, the practice was rated as inadequate overall and for the key questions of safe and well-led. It was rated as requires improvement for the effective key question. The practice was placed into special measures.

There had been a focused inspection on 10 January 2023 to follow up on warning notices that had been issued in respect of breaches of Regulations 12, 13 and 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Not all of the actions had been completed to meet the Warning Notices and as a result we issued Requirement Notices for Regulation 12 (1), Regulation 13 (2) and Regulation 17(1) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.That inspection did not affect the ratings awarded because of the November 2022 inspection.

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

As a result of this inspection on 28 June and 4 July 2023, the ratings for each key question are:

Safe – Requires Improvement

Effective – Good

Caring - Good

Responsive- Good

Well-led – Good

We did not rate the Caring key question. The rating of Good was carried through from previous inspections.

How we carried out the inspection.

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, considering 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:

• 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.
• Shorter onsite 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.
• Information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

• The practice had taken reasonable steps to protect patients and others from the risks posed by healthcare associated infections.
• The provider had implemented effective oversight of the systems and processes designed to deliver safe and effective care.
• The monitoring of patients in receipt of high-risk medicines and those with possible long-term conditions was not always effective.
• The provider had started to analyse telephone data to gain oversight of where delays in call handling may be occurring, but further work was required in this area to help improve performance.
• New management, systems and staff had resulted in improved performance and oversight.

The provider should:

• Review the process for receiving and actioning patient safety alerts.
• Continue to collect and analyse data from the telephone system to help better meet demand.
• Continue to improve the monitoring of patients with long-term conditions and in receipt of some high-risk medicines.
• Ensure that staff complete the correct levels of safeguarding training.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements that have been made to the quality of care provided by this service.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Primary Medical Services