Background to this inspection
Updated
13 December 2019
Queen Camel Medical Centre is located at West Camel Road, Queen Camel, Yeovil, Somerset. BA22 7LT. The practice is situated in a rural part of Somerset and has a dispensary.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities:
Maternity and midwifery services
Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
Diagnostic and screening procedures
Surgical procedures
Family planning
Queen Camel Medical Centre is situated within the Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 5,970 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The provider has six GPs, one trainee advanced nurse practitioner, two practice nurses, two healthcare assistants, seven dispensary staff, seven reception/administration staff, two health coaches and one practice manager. Two of the GPs are female and four are male.
The practice is currently part of a rural primary care network (PCN).
There are higher than average number of patients over the age of 65 for example 48% compared to the national average of 27%. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as eight, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 81 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 87 years compared to the national average of 83 years.
Updated
13 December 2019
We carried out an inspection of this service due to the length of time since the last inspection. Following our review of the information available to us, including information provided by the practice, we focused our inspection on the following key questions:
This inspection looked at the following key questions:
- Safe
- Effective
- Caring
- Responsive
- Well Led
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 and good for all population groups.
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.
- 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.
- Staff treated patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. The practice ethos was to provide an accessible and approachable patient-orientated service.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care.
- Feedback from patients who used the service, those close to them and external stakeholders was positive about the way staff cared for patients.
- Staff told us they felt supported and engaged with managers and there was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation
- The practice had employed two health coaches, GPs and nurses could refer patients directly into this service. The health coaches supported people at home and offered self- care techniques to patients and their families. Through this service the practice has also been able to offer a befriending scheme and other social activities.
- The practice had a text service for teenage patients allowing them priority access to appointments via text messages to the practice. The service was provided in response to teenage patients saying it was their preferred method of communication.
- Practice GPs provided a weekly clinic during term time at a local preparatory school with 120 boarders.
- The practice had acted on areas in the last inspection where we felt improvements should be made, these were:
- A review of the fire evacuation procedure had been completed and there were clear roles and responsibilities for staff.
- A robust audit trail and procedure was in place for medicines that were taken to other collection points.
- There was now a clear complaints process being maintained.
We noted areas of outstanding practice:
- There was a proactive approach to understanding the needs of different groups of patients. The practice had a text service for teenage patients allowing them priority access to appointments via text messages to the practice. The service was provided in response to teenage patient feedback saying it was their preferred method of communication. Practice GPs provided a weekly clinic during term time at a local preparatory school with 120 boarders.
- Feedback from patients who used the service was continually positive about the way staff treated them and how they were listened to. An example of this is in the GP patient survey results (from 01/01/2019 to 31/03/2019) the practice achieved 100% compared to the local average of 96.9% for patients having confidence and trust in the healthcare professional they saw or spoke to within the practice.
- The practice has employed two health coaches who have introduced initiatives such as a pre-diabetes prevention programme (patients are identified and offered education to support a healthier lifestyle), flexercise (an exercise group for patents who require chair-based exercise) health walks and a befriending scheme.
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