Haydon Bridge and Allendale Medical Group

Updated 21 June 2019

Haydon Bridge and Allendale Medical Group provides care and treatment to approximately 5,400 patients, of all ages, living in Haydon Bridge and the surrounding areas of Northumberland. The practice is part of NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group and operates on a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract. Since November 2017 the contract for the practice has been held by Northumbria Primary Care (NPC) Limited (Ltd), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. NPC Ltd also hold the contract for several other GP practices in the Northumberland and North Tyneside areas, including: 49 Marine Avenue Surgery; Cramlington Medical Group; Ponteland Medical Group; Spring Terrace Heath Centre and the Rothbury Practice.

The practice is a dispensing practice and dispenses medicines to approximately 1500 of their patients, who live more than a mile from their nearest pharmacy. Haydon Bridge and Allendale Medical Group provides services from the following addresses.

Main surgery

Haydon Bridge Health Centre, North Bank, Haydon Bridge, Hexham, Northumberland, NE47 6LA.

Branch surgery

Allendale Health Centre, Shilburn Road, Allendale, Hexham, Northumberland, NE47 9LG.

We visited the main surgery as part of this inspection:

Both surgeries are in purpose built, single storey premises. This means the consultation rooms are accessible to patients who have disability issues. Access at the Allendale Surgery for patients with mobility issues is good and includes automated entrance doors. The Haydon Bridge premises does not have automated doors, but patients can ring a bell to summon assistance when entering the building, should they need to do so. Small car parks are available at both surgeries and nearby on street parking is also available. Patients can book appointments in person, on-line or by telephone. The practice has: three full-time and two part-time salaried GPs (two male and three female); two part-time practice nurses (female); three part-time healthcare assistants (female). There are also thirteen non-clinical staff members including: a practice team leader; an officer manager; an administrative team leader; administrators; receptionists; a medicines manager and a team of dispensers; a cleaner.

Haydon Bridge and Allendale Medical Group is a teaching and training practice. The practice provides training opportunities for 3rd and 5th year medical students and placements for trainee GP registrars. The practice is also registered with the Royal College of General Practitioners as a ‘research ready’ practice. This means patients registered with the practice are able to contribute to research programmes, should it be appropriate, and they wish to do so.

Information taken from Public Health England placed the area in which the practice is located in the fourth least deprived decile. This shows the practice serves an area where deprivation is lower than the England average. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have a greater need for health services. The practice has fewer patients under 18 years of age, and more patients over 65 years of age, than the England averages. The percentage of people with a long-standing health condition is above the England average, and the percentage of patients with caring responsibilities is below the England average. National data shows that 1.2% of the population are from an Asian background.

Updated 21 June 2019

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Haydon Bridge and Allendale Medical Practice, on 29 April 2019. This was part of our ongoing inspection programme, but we also wanted to check the practice had made the improvements we said they should, when we last inspected the practice in September 2018.

At the last inspection, on September 2018, we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services and issued a requirement notice because:

• The provider did not have an effective system in place for monitoring the prescribing of high-risk medicines.
• The arrangements for maintaining the ‘cold-chain’ for vaccines stored at the practice were not effective.

At this inspection, we found that the provider had satisfactorily addressed these areas. However, they should improve the consistency of recording refrigeration temperatures at the branch surgery.

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 rated this practice as good overall. (Previous rating September 2018 – Good).

We rated the practice as good for providing safe services because:

• The practice had improved the way they monitored the health of patients prescribed high-risk medicines.
• They had improved their systems for maintaining the ‘cold-chain’ for vaccines stored at the practice. (The cold-chain is a system of storing and transporting vaccines at the recommended temperature, from the point of manufacture to the point of use.)

At our previous inspection, we identified there were areas where the provider should make improvements. During this inspection we found the provider had addressed most of the improvements we asked them to make. The provider had:

• Taken action to familiarise staff with the practice’s business continuity plan and business continuity arrangements.
• Introduced a planned schedule of clinical audit and quality improvement activity, for 2019/2020.
• Devised a protocol and a recording tool, to improve their arrangements for monitoring the contents of the doctors’ home visit bags.
• Reviewed the stock of emergency medicines they held at both sites to reflect best practice guidance. They had also improved the way these were stored, accessed and monitored. An appropriate range of emergency medicines were available and reflected the provider’s assessment of what they needed.
• Advertised the availability of pre-bookable, extended access appointments as part of the Hadrian Extra Care Hub arrangements.

The provider had chosen not to maintain an in-house record of staff’s immunity status, as this was an activity carried out by their parent body, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. (Please refer to our evidence table.)

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly, the provider should:

• Record the temperature of the vaccine refrigerators twice daily, as stipulated in the provider’s policy, and should consistently record what action is taken if the temperature of a refrigerator operates outside of the recommended temperature range.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

Updated 5 October 2018

Updated 5 October 2018

Updated 5 October 2018

Updated 5 October 2018

Updated 5 October 2018

Updated 5 October 2018