Cornishway Group Practice

Updated 18 December 2023

South Manchester GP Federation (SMGPF - the provider) was formed in 2014 and registered with the CQC the same year. The provider is registered for 3 regulated activities of ‘diagnostic and screening procedures’, ‘transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely’, and ‘treatment of disease, disorder or injury’.
They are commissioned through the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB) through the 4 Primary Care Networks they support;

• Withington & Fallowfield PCN
• Didsbury, Chorlton & Burnage PCN
• Northenden & Brooklands PCN
• Wythenshawe PCN

Through this tiered structure, SMGPF supports and is supported by 22 individual practices throughout the 4 PCNs. These practices are members and shareholders in the federation.
SMGPF has a board of 6 directors and 1 non-executive director and is equal shareholder of Manchester Primary Care GP Federation, along with the other 2 federations that cover the rest of the Manchester area (North and Central).

SMGPF directly employs 68 employees in various roles including at the main site, Borchardt Medical Centre (mainly in management roles), and in those employed to support practices through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). The ARRS staff are employed by the federation but are deployed to the individual practices in which they work and support. SMGPF also sub-contracts staff to run their enhanced access service, which is operated from 5 locations;

• Burnage Health Care Practice
• Barlow Medical Centre
• The Park Medical Centre
• Maples Medical Centre
• Cornishway Group Practice

These subcontracted staff consist of GPs, nurses, and healthcare assistants (HCAs) and are subcontracted from these 5 location practices by the federation. We visited all 5 GP practices as part of our inspection over three days, 14, 15 and 17 of August 2023.

Services are run from the enhanced access locations between 4.30 (and 6.30 – dependant on the site) and 8.30pm and also from 9am until 5pm on Saturdays and between 9.30am until 2pm on Sundays. Booking of appointments into the enhanced access services is completed by the patients’ individual practice. Available telephone appointments slots are available for NHS111 to book into. Patients are unable to attend without an appointment.

Updated 18 December 2023

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an inspection of the South Manchester General Practice Federation (SMGPF). The federation is the provider of enhanced GP access services and also offered support to their constituent practices in other forms, including as an employer of health care professionals (such as paramedics) who work within those practices for the benefit of the local population.

Our inspection included a visit to the service’s headquarters at Borchardt medical centre and to all five of the registered locations where the provider (federation) operated their enhanced GP access service from. The reports relate only to the enhanced hours service, not the core GP services operated from these locations. The GP locations are registered and inspected separately.

We carried out an inspection at the enhanced access service delivered from Cornishway Group Practice on 17 August 2023 as part of a larger announced comprehensive inspection of South Manchester GP Federation (SMGPF). This was part of our planned inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The Federation (SMGPF) had systems to manage risk overall, but assurance systems were not in place, as a result they were unable to demonstrate that all actions needed to mitigate risk had been taken at Cornishway Group Practice.
• The federation routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care they provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity, and respect. Patient feedback was provided for this location as part of wider feedback obtained by the Wythenshawe Primary Care Network (PCN). Feedback overall from patients using all locations in the PCN was positive.
• Leadership of the federation was well established and working to ensure services were delivered within a comprehensive framework of governance that would provide high-quality services. Although this framework was in place, we found several areas where assurance systems were absent or poorly embedded. Clinical areas of service delivery were safe and generally effective, however further development was still required.

Although we found no breaches of regulation, the provider should:

• Take action to embed over-arching governance systems across a range of areas including risk management, staff recruitment, training, staff appraisal and medicines management to be assured that there is effective central oversight by leadership at the federation on an ongoing basis, across all of its registered locations.
• Take action to seek patient feedback on their experience of using the enhanced hours service at the location to inform future service planning.
• Continue to consider how staff, patients and stakeholders can inform the future strategy of the organisation.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care