Tollgate Health Centre

Updated 4 December 2023

Tollgate Health Centre is located in Colchester at:

145 London Road

Stanway

Colchester

Essex

CO3 8NZ

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

The practice is situated within the Suffolk and Northeast Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) (Personal Medical Services (PMS) and to a patient population of about 9,500. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider primary care network (PCN) of GP practices.

There is a team of 2 GP partners, 5 part time locum GPs, and 4 GP Registrars who provide clinical cover at the practice. The practice has a team of 4 nurses who provide nurse led clinics and treatment. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. A practice manager and assistant practice manager provide managerial oversight.

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.

Extended access is provided locally by the PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by the 111 service.

Updated 4 December 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection) at Tollgate Health Centre on 26 September 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good overall.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - good

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 11 February 2022, the practice was rated requires improvement overall and good for safe, effective, and well-led but requires improvement for caring and responsive key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up concerns from a previous inspection and in response to risks and concerns reported to us.

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 (add/delete as appropriate):

• 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.
• Staff questionnaires

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.
• There were appropriate infection control procedures in place, that were regularly monitored for assurance this was sustained.
• Staff recruitment procedures were appropriate, and training, competencies, and immunisation status recorded.
• 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 access care and treatment in a timely way.
• 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:

• Continue to work on reducing the percentage of co-amoxiclav, cephalosporins and quinolones prescribed inline with local and national averages.
• Continue to encourage and increase access to cervical screening for patients.
• Continue the work to identify any patients they may have a missed diagnosis.

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