• Doctor
  • GP practice

Rainbow Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

333 Robins Lane, Sutton, St Helens, Merseyside, WA9 3PN (01744) 811211

Provided and run by:
Rainbow Medical Centre

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 3 November 2022

Rainbow Medical Centres are located in St Helens at:

The Sutton Surgery

333 Robins Lane

Sutton

St Helens

Merseyside

WA9 3PN

And:

Thatto Health Surgery

99 Elephant Lane

Thatto Heath

St Helens

Merseyside

WA9 5QL

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, family planning and surgical procedures. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice offers services from both sites and patients can access services at either surgery.

The practice is situated within the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 14,600. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of St Helens South Primary Care Network, a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the second lowest decile (two of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 97.1% White and 2.9% Asian, Black, Mixed, and Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more working age and younger people registered at the practice.

There is a team of eight GP partners who provide cover at both practices. They are supported by two salaried GP’s, a nurse manager, an advanced nurse practitioner, two senior practice nurses, three practice nurses, a mental health nurse, a health care assistant, a clinical pharmacist, practice management, administration, estates and domestic teams.

The Sutton Surgery is open 8am to 6:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and 8am to 1pm Thursday. The Thatto Health Surgery is open 8am to 6:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and 8am to 1pm Wednesday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by St Helens Rota, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by St Helens Rota.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 3 November 2022

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Rainbow Medical Centre on 7 October 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe – Not inspected

Effective – Good

Caring – Not inspected

Responsive – Not inspected

Well-led – Not inspected

Following our previous inspection on 4 July 2019, the practice was rated good overall and for safe, caring, responsive and well-led but requires improvement for providing effective services. We found a breach of Regulation 17:Good governance and issued a requirement notice.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Rainbow Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up breaches of regulation from a previous inspection.

How we carried out the review

This inspection was carried out remotely and did not include a site visit.

This included :

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

  • The practice had made improvements since our last inspection and had now met the requirement notice for Regulation 17 : Good governance.
  • The practice had implemented a robust system to ensure urgent referrals were monitored and followed up.
  • The practice had implemented arrangements for identifying, recording, managing and mitigating risk.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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