The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • Out of hours GP service

Archived: Care UK - Warwickshire

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

George Eliot Hospital, College Street, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 7DJ 0300 130 3040

Provided and run by:
Practice Plus Group Urgent Care Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

6 March 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Care UK Warwickshire on 6 March 2015. Overall this out-of-hours service is rated as good. Specifically we found this provider to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • The out-of-hours service provided safe care and treatment. Care UK Warwickshire had procedures in place which identified and minimised risks to patients who used the service.
  • Staff delivered safe care and treatment and received appropriate training and supervision to enable them to do so.
  • The out-of-hours service was responsive to patients’ needs. It provided face-to-face consultations, telephone consultations and home visits depending on the needs of patients.
  • The out-of-hours service had procedures in place to monitor the effectiveness of its patient care and treatment. This was carried out in a consistent way which ensured the performance of the out-of-hours service was closely monitored. When improvements were needed these were identified and steps were taken to make improvements.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

05/06/2014

During a routine inspection

Harmoni – Warwickshire provides out-of-hours primary medical services for a population of approximately 550,000 people when GP practices are closed. The service is run from five primary care centres, two of which are open only at the weekend. We visited two primary care centres located at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton and Warwick Hospital. There were two clinicians (GPs and Advanced Nurse Practitioners) on duty at each of the primary care centres when we visited, one clinician was based at the centre and the other clinician undertook home visits. There was also a GP at the George Eliot Hospital who undertook telephone consultations.   

We found that there were systems in place to deliver a safe service. Incidents were appropriately managed and used to support learning. Recruitment procedures ensured staff new to the service were appropriately checked to ensure they were of suitable character and had the skills and qualifications required for their role. There were systems in place for the safe management of medicines and prescriptions which enabled them to be accounted for.

Performance was monitored through national standards and the use of audits. Concerns identified were acted on to help improve the service. The service worked with partners to help patients receive a smooth transition between different providers.

We saw polite interactions between patients and staff.  Patients with complex health care needs were supported in the out-of-hours period.

We found the service was responsive to patients’ needs. Staff worked flexibly to meet the changing demands for the service from patients. Where there were concerns or delays patients were contacted. Complaints were appropriately managed and responded to.

The governance arrangements in place ensured that performance was continuously monitored and action taken where needed to address performance issues. The provider actively sought feedback from patients and used this to help inform service improvement. The service was prepared for situations which may affect the smooth running of the service.