Rossendale Minor Injury Unit

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Rossendale Minor Injury Unit (RMIU) on 19 October 2023. This was the first inspection of this urgent treatment centre under this registered provider. Overall, the service is rated good.

At this inspection we found:

• Strong consistent leadership both at Fylde Coast Medical Services (NW) Limited (FCMS) organisational level and locally at RMIU facilitated the organisation’s quality improvement strategy. The primary objective of the service was to deliver a safe, effective and accessible service to people living in the local community.
• A comprehensive cycle of continuous quality improvement with supporting business plans was underpinned by the service’s strategy and this reflected the FCMS’s vision and values.
• All staff were considered a valued resource and the clinical manager, supported by FCMS, invested training, development and support to ensure each team member delivered the best service they could.
• Staff were positive about working at the service and for the organisations. They told us they were clear of their role and responsibilities. Training programmes and supportive performance monitoring was in place to assist staff to deliver safe care to patients.
• There were clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety. Incidents, complaints and patient feedback were viewed as opportunities to learn and to improve processes.
• Clinical records provided evidence that care and treatment was provided safely and effectively.
• Systems to safeguard patients were robust and included a specific induction training package in safeguarding.
• Quality and performance was routinely monitored for contract monitoring requirements and records indicated that the service was performing well against key performance indicators.

We saw areas of outstanding practice. These included:

• Collaborative working with local primary care networks (PCNs) to implement a protocol of medicine review by a clinical pharmacist for patients identified by RMIU as being at risk of increased falls due in part to the types of medicines they were prescribed.
• A range of standard operating procedures had been agreed with different health care providers which ensured patients attending RMIU whose care and treatment needs could not be met there had an agreed pathway to access the most appropriate care.
• Outreach work had been undertaken with local schools and patient participation groups to raise awareness of the services provided by RMIU.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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