The Beaches Medical Centre

Updated 21 June 2022

The name of the registered provider is The Beaches Medical Centre.

The Beaches Medical Centre, formally known as Central Healthcare Centre, merged with Gorleston Medical Centre on 1 October 2018. They had merged with Family Healthcare in 2016.

The practice is registered to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The practice area covers Gorleston and the surrounding villages.

The practice offers health care services to approximately 25,100 patients.

The practice website is www.thebeachesmedicalcentre.co.uk.

There are two GP Partners at the practice (male) and five long term GP locums (three male and two female). The practice clinical team also includes three advanced nurse practitioners and one nurse practitioner, who hold prescribing qualifications. There are two clinical pharmacists, a pharmacy technician and two paramedics. There are six practice nurses, four healthcare assistants and a phlebotomist who are supported by a practice nurse manager. There is a team of 18 reception staff, who are led by a reception supervisor and two senior receptionists. The practice employs six secretarial staff, including a lead secretary, one information technology lead, five data administrators, and one cleaner (contract cleaners are used in addition). The team are led by a Finance & Performance Manager, Operations Manager and Quality Improvement Manager.

The practice is a training practice and at the time of the inspection there were two GP registrars and one foundation year doctor.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday at the Beaches and the branch site in Magdalen Way. We visited this site as part of our inspection.

The second branch site in the village of Hopton is open from 8am to 12.30pm Monday to Friday. The Beaches site was also open on Saturdays from 8am to 12.15pm. We visited this site as part of our inspection.

The practice provides remote consultations by GPs not employed by the practice; this service is supported by the CCG.

Out-of-hours GP services are provided by Integrated Care 24, via the NHS111 service.

Patients could access appointments at a practice in Martham or Great Yarmouth during the evenings and weekends. These could be booked through the practice directly.

According to Public Health England, the patient population has a slightly lower than average number of patients aged under 18 compared to the practice average across England. It has a higher percentage of patients aged 75 and above compared to the practice average across England, with a significantly higher than average number of patients aged 65 to 74. Income deprivation affecting children and older people is slightly higher than the practice average across England. The index of deprivation decile is three, where one is the most deprived and 10 is the least deprived. The ethnic make-up of the practice area is, 96% White, 2% Asian 0.5% Black, 1% Mixed, and 0.5% Other. Male life expectancy is 79 years, which is the same as the England average. Female life expectancy is 82 years, which is below the England average of 83.

Updated 21 June 2022

We carried out an unannounced focused follow up inspection at The Beaches Medical Centre on 25 May 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good

The ratings for each key question are as follows:

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring – Not inspected

Responsive - Not inspected

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection in August 2021 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions except for the well-led key question which was rated requires improvement.

At an inspection in January 2021, the practice was rated Inadequate overall and for providing safe, effective and well-led services. It was rated good for providing caring services and requires improvement for providing responsive services.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection to follow up on:

• Breach of regulation and ‘shoulds’ identified in our previous inspection.
• Concerns raised.

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 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 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 promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
• The practice had employed additional staff and had an active recruitment programme in place.

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

• Continue to reduce the number of comprehensive medicine reviews that were overdue.
• Review and monitor the support for staff such as appraisals and recorded supervision.
• Continue to encourage patients to attend for preventive health checks such as cervical cancer screening and checks for patients with a learning disability.
• Continue to find ways such as a patient participation group to engage with patients and seek their feedback.

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