Lawson Road Surgery

Updated 20 December 2023

Lawson Road Surgery is located in Norwich at:

The Health Centre

Lawson Road

Norwich

NR3 4LE

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

The practice is situated within the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 8560 and is consistently increasing. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices in the North Neighbourhood of Norwich Primary Care Network (PCN).

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth decile (6 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 2.2% Asian, 94.9% White, 1% Black, 1.6% Mixed, and 0.4% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages.

There is a team of 5 GP partners (1 male and 4 female), 1 advanced pharmacist practitioner who is also a partner (male) and 2 salaried GP’s (female). The practice has a team of 2 practice nurses who provide nurse led clinics including for long-term conditions, 1 nursing associate and 3 healthcare assistants. The GPs are supported by a practice manager and a team of reception/administration staff. They also have access to additional roles from the PCN such as care coordinators, clinical pharmacists, dietitian, first contact physiotherapists, home visiting service, mental health practitioners, enhanced recovery workers and social prescribers. The practice looks after 2 dementia care homes, 1 learning disability care home, a nursing home for people with a range of complex neurological conditions, a supported living scheme and a homeless hostel.

The practice is open between 8.00am to 6pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments, these are all accessed through the GPs via an online and telephone triage system.

Extended access is provided locally by the practice and PCN where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are accessed via the national 111 service.

Updated 20 December 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Lawson Road Surgery on 22 November 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection published on 5 November 2015, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection.

We carried out this comprehensive inspection in line with our inspection priorities and covered all key areas.

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.
• Staff questionnaires.

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.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of person-centre care.

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

• Improve and monitor the system used to be assured that water temperature checks are carried out safely.
• Continue to monitor and reduce the backlog of medical records to be fully summarised.
• Continue to monitor and encourage patients with a learning disability to attend their reviews, parents/guardians to bring children for their childhood immunisations and encourage patients to attend for their appointments for the national cervical screening programme.

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