Updated 5 January 2022
Salford Primary Care Together set up COVID-19 services in response to the pandemic. The service provided access to healthcare for patients who may have experienced symptoms of COVID-19.
The main priorities of the service were:
- To reduce the pressure upon acute services including the local emergency department by having a clear pathway for patients who could be managed in the community.
- To ensure GP practices in Salford could be kept as cold sites (patients with COVID symptoms would not attend their GP practice, but be referred to this service) to reduce risk to both patients and staff.
- To ensure those who did not have transport didn’t need to use public transport to get the care they needed by working with a local transport service.
- To ensure that patients who needed home visits were undertaken by a team dedicated to this and aware of the additional infection control procedures that were required.
The chief executive officer is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
The service currently offers:
- Remote assessment for all referrals from general practice, other health care professionals, NHS111, and patients attending accident and emergency departments.
- Face to face assessment for all patients who require this and this includes patients aged six months and above.
- Home visits for housebound and vulnerable patients where this is appropriate.
- Oximetry at home operated via a virtual ward in collaboration with the local NHS trust. Pulse oximeters are provided to patients as part of the NHS response to COVID-19. A pulse oximeter is a small medical device that is put on the tip of the finger, to check someone’s oxygen levels.
- Escalations from patients who are on oximetry at home pathways.
Salford Primary Care Together - Covid Services is based at 2 City Approach, 3rd floor, Albert street, Eccles, M30 0BL, where the delivery of all covid-related services is managed and coordinated. During the pandemic the service has flexibly used three sites for patient facing COVID-19 assessment centres. However, at the time of inspection only one site, St Andrews Medical Centre Annexe 30 Russell Street M30 0NU, was being used as a COVID-19 assessment centre.
During our inspection we visited both the COVID-19 assessment centre and the headquarters at 2 City Approach, 3rd floor, Albert street, Eccles, M30 0BL.
The service is open 10am – 10pm, 7 days a week. The COVID-19 service is staffed (remotely) from 8am when referrals begin to be received and reviewed.
How we inspected this service
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:
- Requesting evidence from the provider before the inspection.
- A short site visit.
- Reviewing the provider’s website and service feedback websites.
To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:
- Is it safe?
- Is it effective?
- Is it caring?
- Is it responsive to people’s needs?
- Is it well-led?
These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.