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Beechwood Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Fishponds Primary Care Centre, Beechwood Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3TD (0117) 908 2360

Provided and run by:
Beechwood Medical Practice

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 18 October 2019

Beechwood Medical Practice is at Fishponds Primary Care Centre, Beechwood Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3TD and is located within the City of Bristol local authority. It is part of the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area and provides general medical services to approximately 11,000 patients.

The practice is situated in a purpose-built heath centre which houses two GP practices who work closely together, a large team of associated community staff and an on-site pharmacy which is operated by another provider.

There is a well-equipped minor operations suite, on-site facilities for podiatry, and four bookable rooms for new patient services. The practice currently houses the local heart failure service and there is a large seminar room which is used regularly for training events.

There is a secure car park situated beneath the main building for partners and staff use; facilities for those who wish to cycle to work including showers and changing rooms and ample parking and level access to the building for patients.

The consulting and treatment rooms for the practice are situated on the ground floor. The practice has eleven consulting rooms, and there are three treatment rooms (for use by nurses, health care assistants and phlebotomists); reception and records room; and a waiting room area. There is limited patient parking immediately outside the practice with spaces reserved for those with disabilities.

Beechwood Medical Practice is a training practice and has General Practice Specialty Trainees (GPSTs) who are attached to the practice for four or twelve month periods, and who are supervised by a GP Trainer with overall responsibility for their education.

Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as fourth on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.

The practice is based in an area of low deprivation and low unemployment compared to the national average. A total of 14% of the practice population is over 65 years which is slightly lower than both the CCG and national averages of 16% and 17% respectively.

The practice is led by three male and four female GP Partners who are contracted to provide General Medical Services (GMS) and who are registered with the CQC for the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The GP Partners are supported by a nurse practitioner, five practice nurses, a health care assistant and a phlebotomist. The practice Manager is supported by a deputy practice manager and a team of 20 reception/administration staff.

The practice provides a range of services including maternity care, childhood immunisations, chronic disease management and travel immunisations and several enhanced services (enhanced services require an enhanced level of service provision above what is normally required under the core GP contract) including childhood immunisation, learning disability health checks, extended opening hours, and rotavirus and shingles immunisations. Private travel vaccinations are offered in addition to those available free of charge on the NHS.

The Provider has only one location and so we inspected the location at:

Fishponds Primary Care Centre

Beechwood Road

Fishponds

Bristol

BS16 3TD

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 18 October 2019

We carried out an announced focussed inspection at Beechwood Medical Practice on 15 August 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We decided to undertake an inspection of this service following our annual review of the information available to us. This inspection looked at whether the practice provided effective and well led services.

The practice was previously inspected in December 2015 and in the report published in February 2016 there was a recommendation that the practice should review the protocol for the safe management of medicines in the practice including emergency medicines and to ensure that staff understood and followed the procedures for the handling and safe storage of prescriptions.

During this inspection, we identified these areas had all been rectified and we saw evidence that the medicine stock was checked every month by the practice pharmacist and logged on a record sheet which was kept in the drug cupboard. This cupboard was in the minor treatment room, the door of which was kept locked when not in use.

We also saw evidence of an excel spreadsheet which was used for tracking prescription usage and the location where they were used. Prescriptions were kept in a locked cupboard and were signed out with a recording made of the date and serial numbers. Rooms where prescriptions were used were kept locked when not in use and printers had locks on the trays to show that and further detail is available in the evidence tables.

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 for providing effective and well led services because:

  • 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 organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

We rated all population groups as good.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

  • Continue to monitor and improve exception reporting levels to be more in line with CCG and national averages, specifically for the long-term conditions of Diabetes, Mental Health and Asthma.
  • Ensure that Mental Health care reviews are being carried out when required
  • Monitor and improve cervical screening uptake.

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