Slaidburn Country Practice

Updated 24 December 2021

Slaidburn Country Practice is located in Slaidburn at:

Townend,
Slaidburn,
Clitheroe,

Lancashire,
BB7 3EP.

The practice is situated in a purpose-built health centre and has a dispensary within the building. All services are on the ground floor with wheelchair access. There are three treatment rooms, a reception and office area and a dispensing room.

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

The practice is situated within the NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers alternative Provider medical services (APMS) under a caretaker contract to a patient population of about 1300. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices called a primary care network (PCN) of four practices in this rural country area (Ribblesdale). The nearest practice to Slaidburn is located eight miles away in Clitheroe.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the seventh lowest decile (seven 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 99% White, 0.4% Asian and 0.6% Mixed.

The age distribution of the practice population did not mirror the local and national averages. There are more older patients (22% compared with 17% nationally and 18% locally) registered at the practice than younger ones (17% compared with 21% nationally and 22% locally).

There is a one main GP who provides cover at the practice, with a regular locum GP who works every Wednesday. The practice has one practice nurse who provides nurse led clinic’s for long-term conditions. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of three dispensing, reception and administration staff.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered a choice of appointment time.

Extended access is provided by the other three practices within the Ribblesdale PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Extended hours are also offered by the East Lancashire Alliance Federation of GP practices at Clitheroe Health Centre, these hours are 6.30pm to 8.30pm Monday to Friday and 9.30am to 1.00pm on Saturdays as well as at other sites across East Lancashire. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 24 December 2021

We carried out an announced inspection at Slaidburn Country Practice between 5 and 16 November 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

The ratings for each of the key questions is as follows:

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Outstanding

Well-led – Good

This is the first time this practice has been inspected under its current CQC registration.

Why we carried out this inspection.

This inspection was a comprehensive to check that the provider was complying with the regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. We inspected all five key questions, is the service safe, effective, caring responsive and well-led.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• 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 have rated this practice as Good overall

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. Some processes had not been formalised and some safety measures were in need of updating.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. Medicines prescribing, monitoring and management of long-term conditions was of high quality.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way. Clinical staff provided access above and beyond their contractual obligations.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• Following our inspection, the provider was quick to try to resolve issues identified during the inspection.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services because:

• Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual people and were delivered in a way to ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care.
• Clinicians made time to see patients outside their contracted hours in order to deliver a responsive service and keep patients safe.
• The practice had the highest satisfaction rates in the most recent national GP/patient survey.
• Patients’ feedback was consistently and strongly positive about the outstanding delivery of access and service the practice provided.

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

• Continue to formalise some procedures, for example fire procedures, premises safety, dispensary management and recruitment.
• Review the process for the management of children on the safeguarding register when they reach adulthood.

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

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care