Southglade Medical Practice

We carried out an announced inspection at Southglade Medical Practice on 14 June 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Require Improvement.

Safe - Requires Improvement

Effective – Requires Improvement

Caring - Good

Responsive – Requires Improvement

Well-led – Requires Improvement

Why we carried out this inspection

This was a comprehensive inspection as this location had been registered by CQC following a change in service provider.

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 clinical 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 Requires Improvement overall

We found that:

• There were ineffective processes in place for the management of patients’ medicines. On reviewing the clinical system we found patients had not been appropriately reviewed before medicines had been authorised.
• Staff shortages had impacted on the delivery of services; in particular, access to appointments and administration staff being able to manage their workload effectively.
• The practice had a system in place to ensure safeguarding registers were monitored effectively. Regular reviews of the registers were carried out to ensure all the relevant information had been recorded appropriately and safeguarding arrangements protected patients from avoidable harm.
• 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.
• Oversight of some governance arrangements were not managed effectively; this impacted on delivery and management of care in some key areas.

We found breaches of regulations. The provider must:

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

In addition the provider should:

• Develop processes to encourage patients to attend immunisation and cervical screening appointments.
• Review telephone access and appointment availability on a regular basis and monitor patient feedback to improve satisfaction.

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