Background to this inspection
Updated
29 June 2018
West Gorton Medical Centre is located at 2 Clowes Street Manchester, M12 5JE. The surgery moved to this location in August 2017. The practice is part of the NHS Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The practice provides services under a General Medical Services contract with NHS England and has 6848 patients on its register. The practice website address is www.westgortonmedicalcentre.co.uk
The surgery is provided from a new purpose built medical centre, close to a busy main road and local to a residential area. The practice offers good car parking facilities, a local pharmacist and grocery shop are also available. The practice provides consultation and treatment rooms on the ground floor, with elevator access to the first floor for people with disabilities.
There are three female GP partners and two male salaried GPs, three practice nurses, one health care assistant, one assistant practice manager and a range of administrative and reception staff. The practice also employs a pharmacist as part of a pilot scheme. At the time of our inspection the practice manager had retired and a new practice business manager was due to commence work in June, as was a newly recruited advanced nurse practitioner.
The practice telephone lines are open Mondays to Fridays from 8am to 6.30pm. The practice facilities are open from 9am until 12.30pm Monday to Friday, except Tuesday when the doors open from 8.30am and in the afternoon from 2pm until 6.30pm. Extended hours are provided Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 7.30am until 8am for pre-booked telephone consultations and one late evening for appointments from 6.30pm until 8pm with a GP and a practice nurse. The practice can also offer patients a same day appointment at one of Primary Care Manchester's hub sites. These are local surgeries who offer extra appointments seven days a week for those patients who have an urgent need to see a doctor on the day. They also offer weekend appointments if preferred.
Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as one on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. The male practice population have a lower life expectancy at 73.5 years compared to the CCG average of 74.8 years and England average of 79.2 years. Similarly, female life expectancy is lower at 78.2 years compared with the CCG average of 79.6 years and the England average of 83.2 years. The practice has a slightly higher number of patients under the age of 18 years, 26% compared with the CCG average of 24% and England average of 21%. Similarly, there is a higher number of patients over the age of 65 years (12%) compared with the CCG average (10%). The largest age group of patients registered at the practice are between 15 and 44 years.
The practice has 58% of its population with a long-standing health condition, which is higher than the CCG and the England average of 53% and 53.7% respectively.
The practice provides family planning, surgical procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures as their regulated activities.
Updated
29 June 2018
This practice is rated as Outstanding. This practice is registered at a new address.
The key questions are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Outstanding
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Outstanding
Are services well-led? – Outstanding
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West Gorton Medical Centre 2 Clowes Street, Manchester on 23 May 2018. The GP practice was located previously at address 6a Wenlock Way, West Gorton and was inspected on 21 July 2016 where we rated the practice Good with Safe rated as requires improvement for recruitment procedures and systems of staff appraisal.
This was the practice’s first inspection at this registered location. This inspection was carried out under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
At this inspection we found:
- The GP Partners were a driving force, united in their commitment to deliver person centred care to their patient population. They effectively used the skills and abilities of their staff team and the resources available in the local community to provide innovative and accessible care, treatment and support to their patients.
- All the practice team were passionate in involving patients in the management of their own health and wellbeing.
- The practice’s underpinning ethos was that the patient was central to all its activities. It involved patients in learning and understanding about their health conditions to promote improved self-management and it utilised effectively community resources to ensure their patients received as much support as possible.
- The GPs worked closely with allied health and social care services to provide a holistic approach to the care provided to patients living in a deprived area.
- The practice implemented new approaches to patient engagement in the management of their long term health condition. Relationships were based on mutual respect and active involvement of patients in their own care by increasing education, promoting self-care and providing support with encouragement to lead healthier lives.
- The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety and the practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
- Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
- Patient feedback on the care and treatment delivered by all staff was overwhelmingly positive.
We saw areas of outstanding practice including:
- Systems to ensure children were safeguarded were supported by the practice’s policy ‘Child not brought to appointment’, whereby all non-attendances at primary care and secondary care appointments were responded to and appropriate action implemented.
- The practice was proactive in piloting research based new ways of working with patients. This included holding regular planned group consultations with diabetic patients and weekly group drop in sessions for patients with chronic obstructive airways disease. Besides the health benefits of these group health care meetings, patients had the opportunity to develop social support networks outside of the GP practice meeting.
- The practice was proactive in seeking out support services and offering these locally for their patients. Supportive services available to patients included the regular contact from the health and wellbeing service Buzz Manchester, weekly visits by staff from the Citizens Advice Bureau and joint working with Shared Care to provide personalised support to specific patients.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Continue with planned work to identify and support patients who are also carers.
- Continue with the planned review of hypnotic prescribing.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice