The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

Hockley Farm Medical Practice

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Braunstone Health & Social Care Centre, 39 Hockley Farm Road, Braunstone, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE3 1HN (0116) 222 6100

Provided and run by:
Hockley Farm Medical Practice

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Hockley Farm Medical Practice is a GP practice which provides a range of primary medical services from its location in Leicestershire. The GP practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease disorder or injury and family planning. We carried out our on-site assessment on 2 May 2024, and our off site assessment started on 30 April 2024. We looked at 14 quality statements; learning culture, safe systems, pathways and transitions, safeguarding, involving people to manage risks, safe and effective staffing, medicines optimisation, assessing needs, monitoring and improving outcomes, shared direction and culture, capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders, freedom to speak up, workforce equality, diversity and inclusion, governance, management and sustainability, and learning, improvement and innovation. During our assessment we found there were some gaps in governance structures and processes which could not always demonstrate that the practice was functioning effectively and safely.

05 September 2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Hockley Farm Medical Practice on 5th September 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe – Good.

Effective - Good.

Caring - Good.

Responsive – Requires Improvement.

Well-led - Good.

Following our previous inspection on 15 December 2015, 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 Hockley Farm Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities due to length of time since our previous inspection. We inspected all 5 key questions as part of this inspection.

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 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 found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • The practice had effective systems in place to recall patients for reviews they required. The practice reported difficulties engaging with patients for reviews but had put in place a dedicated phone line for patients to use to book in to avoid queues on the telephone to make these appointments easy to book.
  • The practice conducted reviews of their population to understand the needs and highlight areas the practice could improve.
  • 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.
  • Patients could not always access care and treatment in a timely way. The appointment system was regularly reviewed, with changes being made to clinical staff rotas to optimise work. However, patient satisfaction continued to be lower than averages in relation to obtaining appointments.
  • Continuous improvement was seen throughout many areas of the practice where management would conduct regular audits and reviews to improve outcomes for patients.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

  • Take action to ensure staff are trained to the relevant safeguarding level for their role.
  • Take steps to ensure complaints are organised and responses to complaints are clearly recorded in line with the practice policy.
  • Continue to engage with patients requiring monitoring of medicines
  • Take action to improve childhood immunisations to target uptake rate.

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

7 January 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hockley Farm Medical Practice on 7 January 2015.  

Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:   

  • Urgent appointments were available the same day.
  • The practice had good facilities including disabled access and was found to be clean and tidy.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available.
  • Patients said they felt the practice offered an excellent service and staff were friendly and caring and treated them with dignity and respect
  • There were systems in place to reduce risks to patient safety for example, infection control procedures.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.
  • Staff had received training appropriate to their roles.
  • Recruitment checks were carried out and the appropriate recruitment checks had been undertaken prior to employment.
  • The practice had a comprehensive business continuity plan in place for major incidents such as power failure or building damage.
  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice