The Pines Surgery

Updated 25 March 2024

The Pines Surgery is located in Northampton at:

Harborough Road

North Kingsthorpe

Northampton

Northamptonshire

NN2 8LL

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

The practice is situated within the NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 9,849. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices that enables them to work with other practices in the area to deliver care.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the 7th 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 area is 85% White, 6% Asian, 5% Black, 3% Mixed, and 1% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages.

The practice has 4 GP partners and 2 salaried GPs. The nursing team consists of 3 independent nurse prescribers, 1 practice nurse, 1 nursing associate and a phlebotomist. The clinical staff are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff who are led by a practice manager and deputy practice manager.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments. Pre-bookable appointments are available on Saturdays if required, for long-term condition reviews, immunisations and cervical screening.

Extended access is provided locally by Northampton GP Enhanced Access Service, where evening appointments are available from 6.30pm to 9.30pm Monday to Friday and weekend appointments are available from 9am t0 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

When the practice is closed, out of hours services can be accessed via the NHS 111 service.

Updated 25 March 2024

We carried out an announced focused inspection at The Pines Surgery on 11 January 2024. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe - requires improvement

Effective - good

Caring - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Responsive – requires improvement

Well-led – good

Following our previous inspection on 21 July 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 Pines Surgery 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.

How we carried out the inspection/review

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:

• Remote reviews of the clinical record system showed some patients who were prescribed medicines that required monitoring were overdue a review and relevant safety alerts had not always been responded to.

• The uptake for cervical screening was below the 80% target set by the UK Health Security Agency.

• The practice had taken some actions to improve telephone access and appointment booking and had plans to change their telephony system. However, it was too soon to assess the impact of these measures.

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• The practice used significant events and complaints to identify areas of learning and improvement.

We found a breach of regulations. The provider must:

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

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to take measures to improve the uptake of cervical screening.
• Continue to take actions to improve patient satisfaction in relation to access and appointment booking.

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