Whitley Road Medical Centre

Updated 23 July 2015

Whitley Road Medical Centre is located in Collyhurst, Manchester and is part of the NHS North Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG.) Services are provided under a general medical service (GMS) contract with NHS England. There are 6615 registered patients.

There are high levels of deprivation in the practice area. 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. Male life expectancy in the practice geographical area is 74 years compared with England average of 79 years and female life expectancy is 79 years compared with the England average of 83 years.

The practice opens from 8.30 am to 6 pm Monday to Fridays. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact an external out of hour’s service provider Go To Doc.

The practice has four GP partners (three male and one female) and two female salaried GPs. There are two female practice nurses, one health care assistant, a practice manager, an office manager, and reception and administration staff. The practice is a GP training practice.

On line services include appointment booking and ordering repeat prescriptions.

Updated 23 July 2015

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Whitley Road Medical Centre on 3 June 2015

Overall the practice is rated as good. We found the practice to be outstanding for providing effective services and good for providing safe, well led, caring and responsive services.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered after considering best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.

• Open access surgeries operated each morning until 10.30am. All patients who arrived at the surgery during this time period were seen by a GP.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.

• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and it was trying to establish an effective Patient Participation Group (PPG).

• The practice had a clear vision which had quality and safety as its top priority. High standards were promoted and owned by all practice staff with evidence of supportive team working across all roles.

We also saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The practice was committed and supportive to improving palliative care services to its patients and was working very closely with the palliative care teams to make sure patients received appropriate end of life care.

• The practice actively screened patient blood test results to identify those that were pre-diabetic. Those identified were invited in to an appointment to discuss the risk of developing diabetes and review lifestyle choices to mitigate this risk.

• The practice initiated insulin therapy on-site, instead of having to attend the local hospital.

• The practice was supporting patients with ‘Self Care’ which is an initiative to build confidence and knowledge for patients to manage their own minor ailments and so reduce the frequency of appointments with a GP.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should:

• Ensure a formalised plan of action to monitor, review and reduce the rate of prescribing hypnotics if appropriate is recorded and implemented.

• Ensure a standardised approach to recording written consent from patients before any minor surgery procedure is undertaken.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as outstanding for the care of people with long-term conditions. The practice had a higher than average number of patients with long standing health conditions (68.3% compared to the Clinical Commissioning Group and England averages 55% and 54% respectively). Patients with long term conditions were supported by a healthcare team that was trained, used good practice guidelines and were attentive to changing needs. There was proactive intervention for patients with long term conditions. Patients had health reviews at regular intervals depending on their health needs and condition. The practice maintained and monitored registers of patients with long term conditions for example cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure. These registers enabled the practice to monitor and review patients with long term conditions effectively. The practice had established systems to identify and support patients who were pre-diabetic, and a practice nurse was trained to initiate insulin therapy in diabetic patients. In addition, the practice staff had received training to promote and encourage self care by patients.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. Childhood Immunisation rates were good for all standard immunisations. Twice weekly baby clinics were held and systems were in place to ensure children who missed their immunisations were reminded to attend clinic. Clinical staff were knowledgeable about the needs of their patient population and ensured children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way. Staff demonstrated a good understanding and were proactive in safeguarding and protecting children from the risk of harm or abuse. The practice had a clear means of identifying in records those children (together with their parents and siblings) who were subject to a child protection plan. The practice had appropriate child protection policies in place to support staff and staff were trained to a level relevant to their role .

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. The practice kept a register of those patients aged 75 and had allocated them a named GP. The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, including offering home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs. The practice safeguarded older vulnerable patients from the risk of harm or abuse. There were policies in place, staff had been trained and were knowledgeable regarding vulnerable older people and how to safeguard them.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. The practice used the local services Fit 4 Work which supported people to get back into the work place after a period of sickness absence. In addition the practice staff had received training to promote and encourage self care by patients. The practice offered open access appointments each morning. Working age patients told us this was useful. The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. The practice told us they needed to work within the confines of the local mental health service and found there were long waiting times for patients to be assessed by community mental health services. Patients with alcohol dependency had the option to self-refer to the community support team and an in house drop in weekly service was available for patients with drug dependency. The practice was currently reviewing patients to identify those with dementia and referring them to a memory clinic for assessment.

Updated 23 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including homeless people, travellers and those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks for people with a learning disability, offered longer appointments and or home visits for people with a learning disability. The practice worked with multi-disciplinary teams to support vulnerable people and this included asylum seekers. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.