Burnham & Berrow Medical Centre has been rated as “requires improvement” by inspectors from the UK’s independent regulator of health and social care, CQC (Care Quality Commission).
While the inspector has praised the standard of caring at the centre as “good” and also highlighted its work during the pandemic, it has concluded that improvements are needed in several areas.
The CQC says: “We have rated this practice as ‘Requires Improvement’ overall, with ‘Good’ in caring, and ‘Requires Improvement’ for safe, effective, responsive and well-led key areas.”
A spokesperson for Burnham & Berrow Medical Centre told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We have fully reviewed the recent CQC report and our focus will be to work with colleagues at the practice as well as with Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group to consider the recommendations made and ensure the relevant changes are implemented.”
“Our team has worked incredibly hard over the past year to provide high-quality care for patients and continues to do so in spite of the challenging circumstances the NHS is facing both locally and nationally.”
The CQC inspector’s report praised the practice in several areas: “Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The inspector adds: “We also found several areas of notable practice: Patient feedback was positive about the COVID-19 vaccination programme and the way it had been managed and delivered. Also, during the pandemic the practice had run Young Adult and Family Planning Clinics via telephone, as well as face to face appointments for patients who needed to be seen.”
However, the CQC report highlights several areas of improvement: “We found that the practice did not always provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected from avoidable harm. Not all patients on high risk medicines were appropriately monitored or recalled.”
“Patients did not always receive effective care and treatment that met their needs. Action had been taken to improve patient outcomes in relation to the Quality Outcomes Framework. However, the performance indicators in relation to the majority of long term conditions were below the national average.”
“There were significant constraints on the ability of people to access care and treatment in a timely way using the telephone system.”
“The leadership and governance did not always support the delivery of high-quality person-centred care, which led to safety concerns and inconsistencies in record keeping for example, recruitment processes, fire safety and health and safety systems.”
The CQC report was compiled following an announced visit to the centre on 24th August, 2021. The previous inspection in 2017 concluded that the practice was rated as ‘Good’ overall for all key areas.
