The Old Dispensary

Updated 3 November 2023

The Old Dispensary is in Wimborne, Dorset at:

32 East Borough

Wimborne

Dorset

BH21 1PL

The Old Dispensary provides NHS GP services to adults and children. The practice offers services from 1 main location but is also in partnership with The Quarter Jack Surgery, which is a medical practice approximately 10 minutes’ walk away.

The practice is owned by a partnership at The Quarter Jack Surgery and as a condition of registration, has a person registered with the Care Quality Commission as the registered manager. Patients can access services at either surgery.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the following Regulated Activities;

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• Surgical procedures

The practice is situated in the town of Wimborne in Dorset. The practice provides a primary medical service to approximately 3,750 patients.

The practice’s population is in the tenth decile for deprivation, which is on a scale of 1 to 10. The lower the decile, the more deprived an area is compared to the national average. The practice population’s ethnic profile is predominantly White British.

The practice team accessible across the 2 locations and assigned to deal with The Old Dispensary patients includes 11 GPs, 11 Practice Nurses/Health Care Assistants and 5 Advanced Nurse Practitioners, as well as the wider PCN team. The Old Dispensary also has a practice manager, an assistant practice manager and 4 reception staff.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, the Wimborne and Ferndown Primary Care Network (PCN), which is made up of 5 GP practices. PCNs provide proactive, coordinated care to their patients in different ways to match different people’s needs, with a strong focus on prevention and personalised care.

The practice is open between 8am to 5 pm 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 through the merged practice, The Quarter Jack Surgery Out of hours services are provided by locally by the NHS 111 service.

Updated 3 November 2023

We carried out an announced focused follow up inspection at The Old Dispensary on 22-30 August 2023.

Since the last inspection, the practice has merged with The Quarter Jack Surgery as a location of that practice. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective – Requires improvement

Caring – not inspected

Responsive -good

Well-led - good

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 Old Dispensary on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up on breaches of regulation and enforcement action from the previous inspections.

On 3 August 2022, when we completed a comprehensive inspection, the practice was rated overall as inadequate. The service was issued urgent conditions on the provider’s CQC registration and placed into special measures.

A further focused inspection was undertaken on 15 November 2022 to assess if improvements had been made in accordance with the provider’s action plan. The practice demonstrated some improvements, but in line with our methodology, the ratings did not change, and warning notices were served under Regulations 12 and 17 of the Health and Social Care Act.

In April 2023, The Old Dispensary merged with another local practice, The Quarter Jack Surgery and the medical, nursing, and administrative workforce joined to support both practices. At this inspection we recognised the work undertaken to meet the enforcement actions and will continue to monitor the areas of effective that require further embedding

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 had clear systems and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse. Staff had the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment, and the practice learned and made improvements when things went wrong.
• There were adequate systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety, and appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were met.
• The practice had systems for the appropriate and safe use of medicines.
• Patients’ needs were assessed, and care and treatment were delivered in line with current legislation, standards and evidence-based guidance supported by clear pathways and tools. The practice had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
• The practice obtained and recorded consent to care and treatment in line with legislation and guidance.
• People were able to access care and treatment in a timely way. The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.
• Complaints were listened to and responded to and used to improve the quality of care.
• There was effective leadership at all levels. Leaders demonstrated they had the capacity and skills to deliver high quality sustainable care. The practice had a clear vision to provide high quality sustainable care and had a culture which drove high quality sustainable care.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles, and systems of accountability to support good governance and management and clear and effective processes for managing risks, issues and performance.
• The practice involved staff and external partners to sustain high quality and sustainable care. There were systems and processes for learning, continuous improvement and innovation.

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

• Consider the use of steroid cards as appropriate to support patients’ needs.
• Continue working to review all patients in line with your timeline.

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