Grovehurst Surgery

Updated 11 August 2022

Dr C M Marsh and Partners is located at Grovehurst Surgery, Grovehurst Road, Kemsley, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 2ST.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice is situated within the Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 7,113. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, Sittingbourne Primary Care Network (PCN).

The practice is a training practice for trainee GPs.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the seventh lowest decile (seven 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% White, 2.2% Black, 1.3% Asian, 1.3% Mixed and 0.2% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more female patients registered at the practice compared to males.

The practice is led by three partner GPs (one male and two female) who are supported by a long-term locum GP (female). The practice has a team of two nurses (female), an urgent care health practitioner (male), senior healthcare assistant (female) and a general practice assistant (female). The GPs are supported at the practice by a practice manager and a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6pm.

The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by Sittingbourne PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Integrated Care 24.

Updated 11 August 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Dr C M Marsh and Partners (also known as Grovehurst Surgery) on 24 June 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe – Requires Improvement

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Why we carried out this inspection

This was an announced comprehensive inspection to provide the practice with an up to date rating. At our previous inspection on 18 November 2015, the practice was rated Good overall.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Dr C M Marsh and Partners on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

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 short site visit,
• Staff surveys.

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 rated the practice Requires Improvement for providing safe services.

We found that:

• Our clinical record searches found improvement was required in relation to the safe management and monitoring of high risk medicines.

We rated the practice Good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services.

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.
• Where our clinical record searches found improvement was required in relation to the safe management and monitoring of high-risk medicines and patients with long-term conditions; the practice had made improvements and had a clear, comprehensive and realistic action to address this.
• 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 and managed promoted the delivery of person-centre care.

We found one breach of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

The provider should:

• Continue with their action plan to ensure ongoing improvement in relation to; the safe management and monitoring of high-risk medicines and patients with long-term conditions
• Continue with their action plan to ensure that all historical safety alerts were being routinely reviewed to ensure that patients being newly prescribed certain medicines were highlighted in the system to ensure the guidance was applied.

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