Background to this inspection
Updated
5 November 2018
The provider is DMC Healthcare Limited who registered with the CQC in February 2018.
Medway NHS Healthcare Centre is located at Balmoral Gardens, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4PN. There is a pharmacy located nearby.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
As part of our inspection we visited Balmoral Gardens, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4PN only, where the provider delivers regulated activities. The provider also delivers regulated activities at Twydall Green, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 6JY.
Medway NHS Healthcare Centre is situated within the NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 6,400 patients under the terms of an alternative provider medical services (APMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community. The practice is located in an area with a higher than average deprivation score.
The practice staff consists of one salaried GP (female), three locum GPs (all male) employed directly as well as via an agency, one practice manager, one advanced nurse practitioner (female), two practice nurses (both female), one mental health nurse (female) and two pharmacists as well as reception and administration staff. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices.
Medway NHS Healthcare Centre is open between 8am and 8pm Monday to Sunday. Twydall Green is open between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday. Primary medical services are available to registered patients via an appointments system and a walk-in service. Primary medical services are also available to patients not registered at the practice via the walk-in service. There are arrangements with other providers (Medway Doctors On Call Care) to deliver services to patients outside of the practice’s working hours.
Updated
5 November 2018
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Medway NHS Healthcare Centre on 10 July 2018. The overall rating for the practice was good. However, the practice was rated requires improvement for providing safe services and a Requirement Notice was served in relation to breaches of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, found at this inspection. The full comprehensive report on the July 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Medway NHS Healthcare Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
After our inspection in July 2018 the practice wrote to us with an action plan outlining how they would make the necessary improvements to comply with the Requirement Notice served.
This inspection was an announced focussed follow-up inspection carried out on 23 October 2018 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 10 July 2018. This report only covers findings in relation to those requirements.
Our judgement of the quality of care at this service is based 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.
This practice remains rated as good overall and is also now rated as good for providing safe services.
At this inspection we found:
- Improvements to the arrangements for managing medicines in the practice kept patients safe.
- We saw that yellow bins, used to store clinical waste outside of the practice, had been made safe.
- The practice had reviewed the contents of the GPs’ home visit bag, which now contained sufficient appropriate equipment.
- Records showed that improvements had taken place to the recording of peak flow results established during respiratory reviews in individual patient records.
- The practice had continued to monitor and improve patient uptake for breast and bowel screening.
- The practice had continued to monitor and improve national GP patient survey patient satisfaction scores.
- Governance documents that we looked at were kept up to date.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Continue to monitor and improve patient uptake for breast and bowel screening.
- Continue to monitor and improve national GP patient survey patient satisfaction scores.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice