Background to this inspection
Updated
8 December 2021
Erimus Practice is located in Middlesbrough at:
20 Cleveland Square
Cleveland Centre
Middlesbrough
TS1 2NX
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 offers services from a single site practice.
The practice is situated within the Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about7000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.
The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, the Central Middlesbrough Primary Care Network which is made up of seven GP practices delivering care and treatment to approximately 49,500 patients.
Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile one 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 12% Asian, 82% White, 2% Black, 2% Mixed, and 2% Other.
The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages with the exception of patients in the 20-34 age categories where there are a higher number than local and national averages.
There is a team of three GPs (one is female and two are male) who provide cover at the practice. The practice has a team of four nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions. There is, in addition to the nurses, a phlebotomist. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception and administration staff. The practice manager and practice supervisor provide managerial oversight.
Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If a GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is invited to attend the surgery.
Extended access is provided by Erimus Practice two mornings every week. Patients can also access extended hours care locally, by ELM Alliance federation, known as ‘The Star Service’, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours care is also provided by ELM Alliance and can be accessed via NHS 111.
Updated
8 December 2021
We carried out an announced inspection at Erimus Practice on 16, 22 and 25 November 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
Safe - Good
Effective - Good
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led - Good
Why we carried out this inspection
This inspection was a comprehensive site visit inspection in line with our commitment to inspect newly registered services.
- We inspected all five key questions (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well led)
How we carried out the inspection
Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
This included:
- Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
- 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 have rated this practice as Good overall
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- 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.
- The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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:
- Take steps to ensure that correct clinical coding is applied to patient records in all cases to improve the safety and quality of clinical searches.
- Continue their work on encouraging eligible women to take up the offer of cervical cancer screening
- The provider should review and improve their arrangements for clinical audit at the practice. Clinical audit should be clearly linked to patient outcomes, monitored for effectiveness and comprise of two or more cycles to monitor improvements to patient outcomes.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care