• Doctor
  • GP practice

Church Stretton Medical Practice

Easthope Road, Church Stretton, Shropshire, SY6 6BL (01694) 722127

Provided and run by:
Church Stretton Medical Practice

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

Inspection summaries and ratings from previous provider

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Background to this inspection

Updated 25 March 2019

OHP-Church Stretton Medical Centre is part of the provider at scale organisation Our Health Partnership (OHP).

Our Health Partnership (OHP) currently consists of 189 partners across 37 practices providing care and treatment to approximately 359,000 patients. The provider has a centralised team to provide support to member practices in terms of quality, finance, workforce, business planning, contracts and general management, whilst retaining autonomy for service delivery at individual practices. OHP also provides a mechanism by which practices can develop ideas to support the sustainability of primary medical services and provide a collective voice to influence change in the delivery of services locally and nationally.

OHP added OHP-Church Stretton Medical Centre as a location to their registration in August 2017. 

Church Stretton Medical Centre is located at Easthope Road, Church Stretton, Shropshire SY6 6BL. The practice is a training practice for GP Registrars and medical students and is part of the NHS Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England. A GMS contract is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the commonest form of GP contract.

At the time of the inspection there were approximately 7,400 patients of various ages registered and cared for at the practice. The practice provides GP services in an area considered of lower deprivation within its locality. Deprivation covers a broad range of issues and refers to unmet needs caused by a lack of resources of all kinds, not just financial. The practice has a significant higher number of patients aged 65 and over compared to local and national averages, which may mean a higher demand for services. The practice population is predominantly white with a lower percentage of unemployment levels and a higher percentage of patients with long-term health conditions compared with local and national averages. Life expectancy at the practice for patients is 84 years for males and 86 years for females, which is higher compared to local and national averages.

The practice team includes six GP Partners, four practice nurses, two health care assistants, one phlebotomist, a practice manager, a patient services manager and a team of reception and administrative staff.

The practice is open between 8.30am and 1pm and between 2pm and 6pm Monday to Friday. When the practice is closed patients are directed towards the out of hours provider via the NHS 111 service.

Further details can be found by accessing the practice’s website at www.churchstrettondoctors.co.uk

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 25 March 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at OHP Church Stretton Medical Centre on 4 February 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 good overall and good for all population groups.

We found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.

  • There was a positive culture for reporting, recording and learning from signiificant events.

  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.

  • Clinical audits were carried out and the results of these were used to improve outcomes for patients.

  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

  • Data form the national patient survey showed the practice was rated higher in most indicators than local and national averages for providing caring and responsive services.

  • The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

  • Staff were supported in their roles and with their professional development.

  • Regular meetings were held with staff to communicate to share information and practice performance.
  • Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of services. They understood the challenges and were addressing them.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

  • The practice had developed and implemented an in-house safety netting system for monitoring patients on high risk medicines on shared care arrangements. This ensured patients were only prescribed medicines following effective review of their required blood tests.

  • As part of a recent development between the practice and local primary and secondary schools, the appointed safeguarding lead had attended school link mental health sessions. These provided an opportunity to discuss problems and difficulties faced by schools when dealing with vulnerable children. As a result of these sessions, a GP-Schools Link form was developed and implemented allowing information to be shared between the practice, families and schools.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Further develop health and safety risk assessments and update the business continuity plan and the practice policies and procedures.

  • Ensure all staff recruitment files contain the required checks including locum staff.

  • Develop a formal system for reviewing nurse clinical decisions made in minor illness/injury clinics held.

  • Provide the escalation route to complainants should they not be happy with the outcome or the management of their complaint.

  • Review the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) exception reporting for patients with diabetes.

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

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice