Doctors Hardy, Hughes, Harvey and Roberts Also known as The Hungerford Medical Centre

Updated 22 November 2023

Doctors Hardy Hughes Harvey and Roberts (otherwise known as the Hungerford Medical Centre) is located in Crewe at:

School Crescent

Crewe

Cheshire

CW1 5HA

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 10, 730. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of Grosvenor, Hungerford and Rope Green Primary Care Network (GHR PCN). This is a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth lowest decile (6 out of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 95.8% White, 1.7% Asian, 1.4% Mixed, 0.9% Black, 0.2% Other.

There is a team of 8 GPs (including 5 GP Partners) in addition to GP registrars. The practice has a nursing team and pharmacy staff. Clinicians are supported at the practice by a practice manager, deputy practice manager and a team of reception and administration staff.

The practice is open between 8am and 6:30pm Monday to Friday with an earlier opening time of 7am on a Wednesday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally in GP hubs by South Cheshire and Vale Royal GPs, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided via NHS 111.

Updated 22 November 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Doctors Hardy Hughes Harvey Roberts (Hungerford Medical Centre) on 10 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - requires improvement

Well-led - good

During the inspection process, the practice highlighted efforts they are making to improve access for their population. These had only recently been implemented so there is not yet verified evidence to show they were working. However, we continue to monitor the data and where we see potential changes, we will follow these up with the practice.

Following our previous inspection on 24 August 2022, the practice was rated requires improvement overall and for all key questions but caring and responsive which were rated good.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Doctors Hardy Hughes Harvey Roberts on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up breaches of regulation from a previous inspection.

We inspected the key questions of: Safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short 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 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 way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

Responsive is rated requires improvement because:

• Patients reported less satisfaction with access to the practice in the National GP Patient Survey, directly to CQC and to the practice. The provider was in progress with an action plan to improve the appointment system and was monitoring patient feedback. The changes to the systems were yet to be fully implemented, evaluated over time and sustained.

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

• Take action to maintain staff vaccination records if relevant to role.
• Review the processes for monitoring patients’ health in relation to the use of medicines including medicines that require monitoring.
• Take action to review the system for management and monitoring of historic safety alerts.
• Take action to address monitoring and follow up action required for patients with long term conditions.
• Monitor and continue to take action to improve uptake for cervical screening.
• Put in place a written programme of quality improvement and audits.
• Continue to take action to improve patient satisfaction regarding access to the service.
• Review documentation and sharing of information from practice meetings with the staff team to facilitate effective learning and communication.

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

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care