We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Cheveley Park Medical Centre on 17 January 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

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 outstanding overall.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing effective services for the families, children and young people and people experiencing poor mental health population groups and therefore overall, because:

• The practice had a very proactive approach to encouraging parents to take their children for their childhood immunisations; which resulted in a 100% uptake rate.
• Highly effective arrangements were in place to support those patients with dementia, which were recognised by credible external bodies.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing caring services because:

• Feedback from patients was consistently positive and was higher than local and national averages.
• Leaders were aware of some of the barriers and problems young carers faced. They had developed comprehensive systems to support young carers and had been awarded an accreditation from the local authority ‘County Durham Young Persons Charter’.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice was aware of some of the barriers and problems young carers faced. They had developed comprehensive systems to support young carers and had been awarded an accreditation from the local authority ‘County Durham Young Persons Charter’.

We also rated the practice as good for providing safe, responsive and well led services because:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services to the population group families, children and young people because of the innovative work to support young people, for which they had received external awards and accreditations.
• 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:

• Improve arrangements to provide assurance that relevant patient safety alerts have been identified, distributed to the right people, a decision made on which need actioned and any action taken recorded.
• Review their arrangements for ensuring that staff have received the relevant vaccinations.
• Review their risk assessment and subsequent decision to not store oxygen on the premises, to ensure appropriate arrangements are in place address any medical emergencies which may require oxygen.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Cheveley Park Medical Centre on 21 October 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were

involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment although not always with their choice of GP. There were urgent appointments available the same day and routine appointments available in two days for GPs and Nurses.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they met people’s needs.

We saw some areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice had a policy of supplying bereaved patients with a condolence card and a booklet that included details of organisations that could provide guidance and help, including charities. This policy extended to sending out a card close to the first anniversary of the death of the loved one. A patient told us that one of the GPs who was on a day off had telephoned to offer support and advice for a terminally ill family member.
• The practice had devised a pregnancy pack to give to pregnant women. This had information with regard to mother and baby health promotion activities such as immunisations. The practice also had a policy of sending out a congratulations card to mothers following receipt of mother and baby discharge summaries from secondary care.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice