Middlewich Road Surgery

Updated 19 December 2023

Middlewich Road Surgery is located in Northwich at:

163 Middlewich Road

Northwich

Cheshire

CW9 7DB

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

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 7,280. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, Northwich Primary Care Network.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth lowest decile (6 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 97.6% White, 1.1% Asian, 0.9% Mixed, 0.2% Black, 0.1% Other.

There is a team of 5 GPs (including 4 GP partners). The practice has a team of nurses. Clinical staff are supported by a team of reception/administration staff and a practice manager.

The practice is open between 8 am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday with appointments available until 8pm on Mondays and 2 Saturdays per month 9am until 12 midday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by the primary care network, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are accessed via NHS 111.

Updated 19 December 2023

We carried out an announced inspection at Middlewich Road Surgery on 22 November 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring – rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Responsive - good

Well-led - requires improvement

Following our previous inspection on 30 June 2015, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions but safe which was rated requires improvement. At a follow up inspection on 24 January 2017, the safe key question was rated good.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

We inspected the key questions safe, effective, responsive and well-led.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.

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 provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care however improvements to some systems were required.

We found one breach of regulations. The provider must:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider should:

• Take action to ensure staff training is completed to meet requirements.
• Complete all staff appraisals and in a formal and timely manner.
• Put in place a written programme of quality improvement and audits to review clinical activity over time to include formal monitoring of consultations for non-medical prescribers.
• Continue to monitor and improve the uptake of cervical screening.
• Continue to monitor patient feedback regarding access to the service and take action where this indicates improvement required.

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 Health Care