Oak Gables Medical Practice

We carried out an announced inspection and site visit at Oak Gables Medical Centre on 16 October 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Requires Improvement

Effective – Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

The practice was rated Good at our previous inspection on 15 July 2016.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Oak Gables Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection/review

This was a comprehensive inspection undertaken as part of our comprehensive inspection programme.

How we carried out the inspection/review

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• Feedback from staff using questionnaires
• A site visit

Our findings

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.

We rated the practice requires improvement in the Safe key question because:

• The practice cared for patients in a way that kept them safe and protected them from avoidable harm, this included safeguarding. However, we saw areas, as described in the safe key question, where improvements could be made to ensure risks were identified and managed properly. These included significant incident reporting, and medicines management. Immediately following the inspection we received some assurances in the way of newly written protocols for implementation.

We also found that:

• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• We found that staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• We saw that the practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to do so. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.

We found a breach of Regulations 12 and the provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

The practice should also:

• Record safeguarding codes/alerts on the records of all family members of children with safeguarding concerns.
• Continue to monitor all chronic diseases and long term conditions to assure themselves that all patients receive the same service and none are missed.
• Implement and embed the training plan for all staff.
• Maintain consistent information in relation to each person employed.

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

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services