The Mote Medical Practice

Updated 11 May 2022

The Mote Medical Practice is located in Maidstone, Kent at:

St Saviours Surgery

Maidstone

Kent

ME15 9FL

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

The practice is situated within the NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 9,900. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices and is part of the South Maidstone Primary Care Network.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fifth lowest decile (five 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 2.5% Asian, 95% White, 1% Black, 1.5% Mixed.

The age distribution of the practice population shows a higher than average proportion of patients in the younger age groups and a lower proportion in the older age groups.

There is a team of five GP partners and one salaried GP. The practice has a team of two nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions. They were supported by two healthcare assistants. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. The practice manager and deputy practice manager provide 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 a choice of either the main GP location or the branch surgery.

Extended access is provided locally at other locations, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Urgent treatment can be accessed via local urgent care, minor injury and walk-in centres. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 11 May 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at The Mote Medical Practice on 28 February 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Set out the ratings for each key question

Responsive – Requires improvement

Following our previous inspection on 22 November 2016, 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 The Mote Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection to follow up on:

Outline focus of inspection to include:

• Responsive key question
• Patient access to services

CQC undertook this inspection at the same time as we inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in Kent and Medway. 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/review

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 included:

• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit

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 Requires Improvement for the responsive key question.

We found that:

• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Patient feedback showed that patients could not always access care and treatment in a timely way. However, the practice had increased availability of appointments.
• GP patient survey results and online reviews showed that patients experienced difficulties getting through to the practice by phone.
• The practice had implemented a new telephone system although this had not been fully effective in addressing the issues. Further plans had been implemented to use a cloud based system.
• The practice responded to complaints in line with their policy and there was evidence of improvements as a result.

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

• Continue to implement plans for improved telephone access and evaluate the effectiveness of this.

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