Ringmead Medical Group

Updated 16 January 2024

We carried out an assessment of Ringmead Medical Group between 14 February and 5 March 2024. The assessment was carried out in response to feedback we received about the practice. The practice was previously rated good overall and good for all the key questions of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Following this assessment the service is now rated requires improvement overall. The key questions of effective and responsive are rated good, however safe and well-led are now rated requires improvement. During the assessment we found two breaches of regulation related to safe care and treatment and governance systems and processes that were operated within the practice. We found examples where care and treatment provided had not followed best practice, national guidance or safety alerts from the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). We found many examples of ineffective and inconsistently operated governance processes in both clinical and non-clinical areas. Where processes existed, they were not always embedded throughout the practice. We found evidence that the practice did not have effective systems or processes to identify and manage risks within the practice. We were also not assured leadership had effective oversight of all the risks faced by the practice. We heard mixed responses from staff about the organisational culture. Some staff felt supported, listened to and that concerns were acted on, whereas other did not. However, we found the practice had systems and processes to identify patients that needed additional support and could explain the care and support they offered. We also found the practice was aware access to care was a priority for patients and had acted to improve patient’s experiences. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.

Updated 16 January 2024

The methodology used during this assessment did not involve speaking directly with patients during the site visit. To hear from patients about their experiences we asked the practice to share details of our Give Feedback on Care process. We received 35 pieces of feedback during the assessment period, and we reviewed patient feedback in our system which included 8 pieces of feedback. In total there were 15 pieces of positive feedback, 2 pieces of mixed and 18 pieces of negative feedback. Positive themes included praise and thanks for the clinical care patients had received, good experiences of triage and access to an appointment. Negative themes included delays with accessing appointments, registration difficulties, unsatisfactory personal experiences and difficulty obtaining repeat prescriptions. We also received 21 pieces of patient feedback from patients provided by Healthwatch. There were no themes evident within this feedback. Results of the most recent GP Patient Survey showed the practice was below the average for all the indicators with significant negative variation in relation to accessing the service. Our overall findings were that patients’ experiences of receiving care and treatment from the practice were mixed and opportunities to continue improving patients’ access to care and their experience when interacting with the practice existed.