Wellside Surgery

Updated 9 May 2022

Wellside Surgery is located in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire at:

• 45 High Street, Sawtry, Huntingdon, PE28 5SU

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

The practice is a dispensing practice and offers services from a single location.

The practice is situated within the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 7,900. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is one of five practices within the ‘A1 Network’ primary care network (PCN).

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the second highest decile (nine 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 97.1% White, 1.4% Mixed, 0.9% Asian, 0.4% Black and 0.2% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population largely mirrors the local and national averages; however, there are fewer working age people and more older people registered at the practice

There is a team of six GPs who provide cover. The practice has a team of two nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception, administration and dispensary staff. The practice manager provides managerial oversight.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered an appointment at the main GP location.

Extended access is provided locally by West Cambs GP Federation, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Herts Urgent Care.

Updated 9 May 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Wellside Surgery between 29 March and 6 April 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good with the following key question ratings:

• Safe - good
• Effective - good
• Caring – not inspected
• Responsive – inspected but not rated
• Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 17 July 2017, the practice was rated as good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection. We undertook this inspection at the same time as CQC inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. To understand the experience of GP providers and people who use GP services, we asked a range of questions in relation to urgent and emergency care. The responses we received have been used to inform and support system-wide feedback.

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
• Reviewing patient feedback
• Undertaking a staff questionnaire.

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 found that:

• The practice had clear processes to keep people safeguarded from abuse.
• Appropriate standards of cleanliness were met.
• There were adequate systems to manage risks to patient safety.
• The practice had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
• Care and treatment were delivered in line with current legislation.
• Staff worked together and with other organisations to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Leaders demonstrated they had the skills to deliver high quality care.
• There were clear systems of accountability to support good governance.

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

• Implement a process to review when non-clinical staff are required to undertake Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, and when repeat checks are required.
• Review the storage of medicines and access to the dispensary.
• Improve processes to ensure all controlled drugs subject to safe custody arrangements are stored appropriately.
• Review how emergency medicines and equipment are reviewed.
• Improve the uptake of cervical cancer screening.
• Improve processes to gather patient feedback on key changes to the service.
• Ensure all patients are issued with a steroid card where required.

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