Wideopen Medical Centre

Background to this inspection

Updated 13 March 2017

Wideopen Medical Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services. It is located in the town of Wideopen, north of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The practice provides services to around 7,500 patients from two locations:

Great North Road, Wideopen, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE13 6LN;
Dudley Surgery, Market Street, Dudley, Cramlington, Northumberland, NE23 7HR.

We visited both of these addresses as part of the inspection.

The practice has three GP partners (one female and two male), three salaried GPs (one female and two male), two practice nurses (female), two healthcare assistants, a practice manager, and nine staff who carry out reception and administrative duties.

The practice is part of North Tyneside clinical commissioning group (CCG). The practice population is made up of a higher than average proportion of patients over the age 65 (23.9% compared to the national average of 18.9%). Information taken from Public Health England placed the area in which the practice is located in the fifth more deprived decile. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services.

The Wideopen surgery is located in a purpose built two storey building. All patient facilities are on the ground floor. The Dudley surgery is located in a converted single storey building. There are no dedicated patient car parks however; there is parking in the streets surrounding the surgeries. There is step free access and a disabled WC at each site.

Opening hours at the Wideopen surgery are between 8.45 am and 6pm Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; between 8.45am and 6pm then 6.30pm to 7.15pm on Tuesday; and between 7.30am and 6pm on Friday.

Opening hours at the Dudley surgery are between 8.45am and 6pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; and between 7.30am and 7.15pm on Thursday.

Patients can book appointments in person, on-line, by telephone or by using an ‘App’ on a mobile device. Appointments are available at the following times:

Monday - 8.45am to 11.20am; then from 2.55pm to 4.45pm
Tuesday – 8.45am to 11.20am; from 2.30pm to 5.05pm; then from 6.30pm to 7.15pm
Wednesday – 8.45am to 11am; then from 3pm to 5.40pm
Thursday – 7.30am to 12.20pm; then from 2pm to 7.10pm
Friday – 7.30am to 11.20am; then from 2.30pm to 5.40pm

A duty doctor is available each morning between 8am and 8.45am and each afternoon until 6.30pm.

The practice provides services to patients of all ages based on a General Medical Services (GMS) contract agreement for general practice.

The service for patients requiring urgent medical attention out of hours is provided by the NHS 111 service and Vocare, which is also known locally as Northern Doctors Urgent Care.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 13 March 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Wideopen Medical Centre on 25 August 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report on the August 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Wideopen Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 14 February 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 25 August 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

The practice had implemented a new infection control policy. Infection control audits had been undertaken at both sites and action plans were in place to address the small number of minor areas identified which required improvement.
Processes for managing medicines had improved.
A fire evacuation drill had been carried out at both sites. This was recorded and learning points were documented.
All clinicians had completed fire safety training.
New systems had been implemented to check expiry dates for medicines and equipment.
Improved processes for disseminating patient safety alerts had been implemented
Managers showed us records which demonstrated that exception rates were very low across all areas of QOF and informed us the records on the NHS database were not reflective of the practice’s own clinical records.

When we last inspected we found the systems in place for arranging home visits were not in line with recent NHS England guidelines (Patient Safety Alert, March 2016). The practice had a system in place to assess whether a home visit was clinically necessary; but there were no formal arrangements to assess the urgency of the need for medical attention during morning clinics.

During this inspection we found improvements had been made. Each morning, one of the GPs had dedicated time to triage all requests for home visits to ensure visits for those patients with more urgent needs were prioritised.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice