Updated 14 April 2020
Bolton GP Federation is owned by its members who are local GP practices across nine neighbourhoods in Bolton. Their motto is “Stronger through working together” and their aim is to find new ways of working that bring the skills of different health professionals into general practice to provide the right care for the right person at the right time whilst using resources and time more efficiently.
The Urgent Treatment Centre (Royal Bolton Hospital) is one of the locations where Extended Primary Care (EPC) hours are provided by Bolton GP Federation. CQC undertook an inspection of the Bolton GP Federation EPC service at the Urgent Treatment Centre, on 24 February 2020.
The EPC service is located within Royal Bolton Hospital near the Accident and Emergency Department. The service is not what the location name suggests, and it is not an urgent treatment centre. It is an extended primary care service offering routine patient appointments to patients who are registered with participating GPs. It is also the location for the BARDOC GP Out of Hours Service, and the reception space is shared with them.
Evening and weekend appointments are available at this location as part of Improving Access to General Practice. Patients who are registered at various practices across Bolton can see a GP or nurse every weekday from 6.30pm until 9.30pm and at the weekend on a Saturday and Sunday morning from 8am until 1pm and on Bank Holidays. The extended service is delivered and managed by Bolton GP Federation. The service primarily provides routine appointments for those patients who are working or unable to attend a GP practice between 8am and 6pm. Urgent and on-the-day requests are not part of this service, although appointments may sometimes be utilised for urgent requests where there is capacity.
Patients who need an appointment for routine ongoing health conditions can see a GP, advanced nurse practitioner or a nurse or health care assistant and can access a phlebotomy service, cervical screening appointment and/or routine health check. Clinics are arranged at the Urgent Treatment Centre or one of the other two locations (Winifred Kettle and Waters Meeting). Each appointment is for fifteen minutes.
Clinical staff are employed by the provider and the GPs and advanced nurse practitioners are mainly clinical staff already working at one of the local practices within Bolton. Patients can often see their own GP, or a GP known to them, during EPC appointments. Clinicians have full access, with the ability to read and write into each patient’s clinical record.
The clinical sessions and clinical staff are supported by a receptionist at each location. There is also a team of clinical and administrative service co-ordinators on call during core opening hours who offer a range of support and guidance to the onsite staff.
The provider Bolton GP Federation is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury at:
Urgent Treatment Centre
Royal Bolton Hospital
Minerva Road
Farnworth
Bolton BL4 0JR
The location is accessible by public transport. Bolton train station is on Trinity Street where the number 501 bus service runs every ten minutes to the Urgent Treatment Centre. There are also other buses which run, and all buses stop within the hospital grounds.
The practice has a website that contains information about what they do to support their patient population:
The service does not accommodate walk-in patients or undertake home visits.