The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

East Norwich Medical Partnership

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

St Williams Way, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, Norfolk, NR7 0AJ (01603) 778277

Provided and run by:
East Norwich Medical Partnership

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about East Norwich Medical Partnership on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about East Norwich Medical Partnership, you can give feedback on this service.

2 February 2016

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of this practice on 25 August 2015 and found that improvements were necessary in order to comply with the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

In August 2015 we found that the provider did not have appropriate arrangements in place to ensure that staff, including those that undertook chaperone duties, had received a disclosure and barring check (DBS) or had a written risk assessment completed.

The practice’s staff records did not consistently contain evidence of training and qualifications. The practice did not have effective auditing procedures for infection prevention and control with a designated lead who was appropriately trained. The practice did not have a legionella risk assessment.

After the inspection the practice provided us with an action plan to demonstrate how they intended to comply with the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.We undertook a focused follow up inspection to check that the practice had followed their action plan and to confirm that the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 had been met.

This report only covers our findings in relation to the improvements required following our inspection in August 2015. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports' link for on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

25 August 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at East Norwich Medical Partnership practice on 25 August 2015. The overall rating for this practice is requires improvement. Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • The practice was a friendly, caring and responsive practice that addressed patients’ needs and that worked in partnership with other health and social care services to deliver individualised care.
  • Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. However, when things went wrong, reviews and investigations were not thorough enough and lessons learned were not communicated widely enough to support improvement.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • Staff were supervised but there was no evidence that they were continuously supported through further training and development.
  • There was a leadership structure but staff did not always feel supported by management.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • Reasonable adjustments were made and action was taken to remove barriers when people found it hard to use or access services. For example, one of the GPs took special interest in providing proactive care to the homeless, patients with drug addictions and asylum seeking patients. The practice had multi-lingual staff who could speak a range of languages commonly used by patients.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly the provider should:

  • Ensure learning from significant events is disseminated and shared with all relevant staff.
  • Ensure patients in the waiting rooms and throughout the premises are monitored, in case they become suddenly unwell.
  • Introduce a comprehensive information pack for locum staff.
  • Ensure easy access to the accident book and ensure all staff are aware of its location.
  • Ensure safety alerts and updates dissemination is documented.
  • Ensure all staff’s mandatory training is monitored, documented and up to date.
  • Ensure staff appraisals are up to date.

Importantly the provider must:

  • Carry out risk assessments to ensure a safe practice environment is maintained, this includes assessment of all risks associated with legionella and Controlled Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).
  • Implement auditing procedures for infection prevention and control with a designated lead who is appropriately trained.
  • Carry out and/or risk assess Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and other recruitment checks for staff.
  • Ensure staff records contain evidence of their training and qualifications.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice