Hightown Surgery

Updated 16 March 2017

The practice provides services from Hightown Gardens, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 9DB

Hightown Surgery has a purpose built location with good accessibility to all its consultation rooms. The practice serves 11,100 patients from the surrounding town. The practice demographics closely match the national average in terms of age and gender. According to national data there is minimal deprivation among the local population. There are some patients from minority ethnic backgrounds, but the population is mostly white British by origin.

• There are eight GPs working at the practice, seven female and one male. There are four practice nurses, a phlebotomist and one healthcare assistant. A number of administrative staff and a practice manager support the clinical team.
• This is a training practice and GP Registrar placements were taken at the practice.
• There are 4.3 whole time equivalent (WTE) GPs and 3.4 WTE nurses.

• The practice was open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. There were extended hours appointments from 7.30 from Monday to Wednesday and until 7pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.
• Out of hours GP services were available when the practice was closed by phoning 111 and this was advertised on the practice website.

The practice had been inspected by CQC previously in July 2016.

Updated 16 March 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

Our previous comprehensive inspection at Hightown Surgery on 12 July 2016 found breaches of regulations relating to the safe and effective delivery of services. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. Specifically, we rated the practice as requires improvement for provision of safe and effective and good for providing caring, responsive and well-led services. Consequently we rated all population groups as requires improvement. The full comprehensive report from the July 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hightown Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused desktop inspection (we have not visited the practice but requested information to be sent to us) carried out on 16 February 2017. It was conducted to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and improvements made since our last inspection.

We found the practice had made improvements since our last inspection. The information requested in February 2017 identified that the practice was meeting the regulation that had previously been breached. We have amended the rating for this practice to reflect these changes. The practice is now rated good for the provision of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services. Overall the practice is now rated as good. Consequently we have rated all population groups as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The significant event procedures had been amended to introduce periodic reviews of incidents. This ensured any required changes to practice were embedded.
• Legionella and fire risk assessments had taken place and actions undertaken as a result of these assessments.
• There had been a significant reduction in exception reporting (exceptions are made when patients are not included in national data submissions regarding practice performance) since our previous inspection.
• The level of up to date medicine reviews had increased significantly since July 2016, improving the monitoring of patients on repeat medicines.
• Learning disability reviews were at 73% for the year which was up from 54% for the previous year found at our last inspection in July 2016.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 16 March 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns we identified in the safe and effective domains at our inspection on 12 July 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group. The population group ratings have been updated to reflect this.

• Exception reporting had been reduced to significantly increase the number of patients who attended for long term conditions reviews and received appropriate care and treatment.
• Medicine review uptake had increased significantly.

Updated 16 March 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns we identified in the safe and effective domains at our inspection on 12 July 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group. The population group ratings have been updated to reflect this.

Updated 16 March 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns we identified in the safe and effective domains at our inspection on 12 July 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group. The population group ratings have been updated to reflect this.

Updated 16 March 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns we identified in the safe and effective domains at our inspection on 12 July 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group. The population group ratings have been updated to reflect this.

Updated 16 March 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns we identified in the safe and effective domains at our inspection on 12 July 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group. The population group ratings have been updated to reflect this.

Updated 16 March 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns we identified in the safe and effective domains at our inspection on 12 July 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group. The population group ratings have been updated to reflect this.

• It offered annual health checks and care plans for patients with learning disabilities. There was a completion rate of learning disability health checks of 73%.