Updated 20 June 2024
Date of assessment: 16 July to 6 August 2024. We assessed 22 quality statements across safe, effective, responsive, and well-led key questions and have combined the scores for these areas with scores based on the rating from the last inspection, which was good. Though the assessment of these quality statements indicated a new area of concern since the last inspection, overall, the practice is rated good, and all key questions are rated as good. At this assessment, we found there was a culture of learning from safety events and when things went wrong, staff acted to ensure people remained safe. People received effective care and treatment that met their needs. Arrangements were in place to respond to the individual needs of people and practice leaders continued work to improve equity in access. The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality care. Effective arrangements were in place for partnership working and for improvement and innovation. However, we found improvements were needed to ensure medicines were managed safely. We found 1 breach of regulation for medicines optimisation. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment. Abbey Field Medical Centre is a GP practice in Colchester, with 2 branch sites nearby in Greenstead and Elmstead Market, which has a dispensary. There were approximately 21,808 people registered with the service at the time of our assessment. Deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (4 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.