Background to this inspection
Updated
5 December 2022
Heath Road Medical Centre is located in Runcorn at:
78 Heath Road
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 5TJ
Paramedic and pharmacy services are provided at:
St Pauls Health Centre (Grove House Practice and Tower House Practice)
High Street
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 1AB
Hallwood Health Centre (Brookvale Practice and Weaver Vale Practice)
Hospital Way
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 2UT
Murdishaw Health Centre
Gorsewood Road
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 6ES
Castlefields Health Centre
Village Square
Runcorn
Cheshire
WA7 2ST
The registered provider is GP Connect Health Ltd. The service offers extended access, community dermatology, asylum seeker home visiting, paramedic and pharmacy team services under a contract with NHS England.
Heath Road Medical Centre service consists of 11 GPs who are supported by 2 paramedics, 3 pharmacists, 4 nurses, an advanced nurse practitioner, 2 healthcare assistants and a pharmacy technician. The clinical team are supported by an administrative team and a project manager. An operations and business manager provide managerial oversight.
Opening times:
- Monday to Friday 6.30pm to 8.30pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm (extended access)
- Friday 2pm-6pm (dermatology)
- Tuesday and Wednesday 9am to 1pm and Thursday 9am to 5pm (asylum seeker home visiting)
- Monday to Friday 8am to 5.30pm (pharmacy team service)
- Monday to Friday 8am to 6.30pm (paramedic team service)
The service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following Regulated Activities:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Maternity and midwifery services
- Surgical procedures
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
How we inspected this service
Before visiting we reviewed information we hold about the service and asked the service to send us information. This included their latest statement of purpose, details of staff employed including their qualifications and proof of registration with their professional bodies. As part of the inspection we reviewed feedback gathered from patients, spoke to the registered manager, senior managers and clinical staff. We reviewed a range of documents.
To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:
- Is it safe?
- Is it effective?
- Is it caring?
- Is it responsive to people’s needs?
- Is it well-led?
These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.
Updated
5 December 2022
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 Heath Road Medical Centre (operated by GP Health Connect Ltd) on 15 November 2022 as part of our inspection programme. This location has not been inspected since it was registered with Care Quality Commission on 26 April 2017.
The provider GP Health Connect Ltd offers extended access, community dermatology, asylum seeker home visiting, paramedic and pharmacy team services under a contract with NHS England. Patients are referred to the service by their usual GP or NHS 111. Paramedic and pharmacy services are provided provided from Grove House Practice, Tower House Practice, Brookvale Practice, Weavervale Practice, Murdishaw Health Centre and Castlefields Health Centre.
Dr David Wilson is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
At the time of the inspection there were no patients attending or receiving regulated services and we were unable to ask them about the service. However, we reviewed comments from patients that the service had received as part of its continuous satisfaction survey conducted.
Our key findings were:
- Patients received care that was delivered safely and effectively.
- Clinicians assessed patients according to appropriate guidance, legislation and standards and delivered care and treatment in line with current evidence-based guidance.
- There were enough staff who were suitably qualified.
- Patients were treated with respect and staff were kind, caring and involved them in decisions about their care.
- Patients were offered appointments and treatment in a timely manner.
- Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
- There was an effective governance framework in place in order to gain feedback and to assess, monitor and improve the quality of the services provided.
- The provider was aware of the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Improve the uptake of mandatory training within the staff team.
Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA
Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services