Churchtown Medical Centre

Updated 14 July 2023

Churchtown Medical Centre is located in Southport at:

137 Cambridge Road,

Southport

PR9 7LT

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

The practice is situated within the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers services as part of an General Medical Services contract with NHS England to a patient population of about 9,200. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in decile 6 (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, 0.9% Asian, 0.3% Black, 1.1% Mixed, and 0.2% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population shows there are more older people than the national averages.

Staff working at the practice include 4 GPs (3 male and 1 female) in addition to long term locum GPs and a team of nurses. The clinicians are supported at the practice by a practice lead and a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is open between 8am and 6:30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

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

Updated 14 July 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Churchtown Medical Centre on 22 and 24 May 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive – requires improvement

Well-led - good

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Churchtown Medical Centre 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 of:

Safe, effective, caring, 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.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

Responsive is rated requires improvement because:

• Patients reported less satisfaction with access to the practice in the National GP Patient Survey, directly to CQC and the practice. As a result, the provider had an action plan to improve the appointment system. The changes made were yet to be evaluated over time and sustained.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Take more timely action in response to all safety alerts.
• Improve documentation in patient records including medication reviews and information provided to patients during consultations.
• Take action to address monitoring and follow up action required for patients with long term conditions.
• Improve uptake for cervical screening.
• Continue to take action to improve patient satisfaction regarding access to the service.

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