Northfield Surgery

Ratings

• Overall

  Inadequate

• Safe

  Inadequate

• Effective

  Inadequate

• Caring

  Requires improvement

• Responsive

  Inadequate

• Well-led

  Inadequate

Our view of the service

Northfield Surgery is located in the Thorne area of Doncaster at: The Vermuyden Centre Thorne Doncaster DN8 4BQ. 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 and surgical procedures. The practice is situated within the NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 10,000 patients. This is a part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices called the Doncaster East Primary Care Network (PCN). Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third lowest decile (3 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. We inspected and rated this service under our previous methodology on 23 May 2023. The practice was rated inadequate overall, and for the key questions safe, effective, responsive and well-led, caring was rated as requires improvement. Following this inspection the practice was placed into special measures. We carried out an assessment between 26 – 28 February 2024. The service has been rated as requires improvement overall and for the key questions caring, responsive and well-led. Safe and effective were rated as good. The practice has now been taken out of special measures as a result of the improvements we found.

People's experience of this service

Patients reported that they were dissatisfied with the ability to contact the practice via telephone and reported difficulty accessing appointments at the surgery. Results from the National GP Patient Survey showed significant variation to national averages for contacting the practice via telephone. The practice was updating their current telephone system to improve this. We found that the practice had updated their complaints procedure and had a patient’s experience manager in post to improve this. Early feedback gathered suggested this was improving patients experiences, however actions taken so far were not sufficiently embedded to be able to demonstrate a positive patient impact.