The New Springwells Practice

Updated 15 January 2024

The New Springwells Medical Practice is located in Billingborough at:

Spring Wells

Billingborough

Sleaford

Lincolnshire

NG34 0QQ

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

The practice is situated within a rural setting as part of the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 6,200 which are spread over 80 villages and hamlets. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices within the K2 Primary Care Network (PCN) which consists of 6 practices providing care to over 56,000 patients.

There is a team of 1 managing partner and 1 GP partner who provide cover at the practice along with 2 salaried GPs. The GPs are supported by the practice manager, deputy practice manager and a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice has a team of 3 advanced nurse practitioners, 3 practice nurses and 2 health care support workers. The dispensary is overseen by a dispensary manager with a staff of 9 dispensers, 1 dispensary assistant, a delivery driver and a relief delivery driver to cover holiday and absences.

The GPs also employed several staff under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). For example, Musculoskeletal (MSK) practitioner, Clinical Pharmacists, Social Prescriber and Mental Health Practitioners.

The practice is a dispensing practice and dispenses medicines to 90% of eligible patients. The practice was able to offer dispensing services to those patients on the practice list who lived more than 1 mile (1.6km) from their nearest pharmacy.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 8am and 8.15pm Tuesday and 7am and 6.30pm on a Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

The practice is a training practice and trains doctors to become General Medical Practitioners and is part of the East Midlands Deanery.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the seventh lowest decile (7 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 patients is 99% White, 0.6% Mixed, 0.4% Asian, and 0.3% Black.

The age distribution of the practice population shows a higher proportion of older patients when compared with the local and national averages. There are more female patients registered at the practice compared to males.

Extended access is provided by the PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available.

Out of hours services are provided by Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.

Updated 15 January 2024

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The New Springwells Practice on 23 & 25 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - outstanding

Responsive - good

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 25 February 2016, the practice was rated outstanding overall and for caring, responsive and well led and good for safe and effective key questions.

At the last inspection we rated the practice as outstanding overall and for providing caring, effective and well led services because:

• Of the systems and practices in place to manage significant events, positive incident reporting and learning culture. Patient focused approach to individualised care, liaison with other care providers, understanding of and response to access and demand fluctuations. Patient feedback showed extreme satisfaction with the service provided with staff feedback showing a good working environment and team culture.

At this inspection, we found the provider had maintained outstanding practice in the caring key question, with good practice in safe, effective and well led key questions. The practice overall, is therefore now rated good.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up from a previous inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

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 site visit.
• Requesting patient feedback via the providers website.
• Conducting telephone interviews with other interested parties.
• Providing feedback forms for all members of staff.

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.
• 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, if improvements were identified as required, action was taken to mitigate and resolve the risk.
• 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, people were respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care, practically and emotionally, by the service provided.
• Feedback from people who used the service, those who were close to them, and stakeholders was positive about the way staff treated people. People thought that staff went the extra mile, and their care and support exceeded their expectations.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way and the rurality of the service and demographic makeup of the patient cohort had been taken into account.
• The practice worked innovatively with local community services and businesses to support patients who may be vulnerable or have specific needs.
• Leaders did not demonstrate full understanding of all issues relating to the challenges to quality within the practice and governance arrangements had failed to effectively identify all risks to safe patient care. However, they had responded immediately and made changes required to mitigate the challenges to quality and safe care during our inspection.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulation the provider should:

• Continue to update information about immunisation and training.
• Take action to embed and continually improve the newly developed and improved governance system and process within the practice to ensure safe care.

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