Background to this inspection
Updated
16 July 2018
Slag Lane Medical Centre is the registered provider and provides primary care services to its registered list of 2,799 patients. The practice delivers commissioned services under the General Medical Services (GMS) contract and is a member of NHS Wigan Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
The GMS contract is the contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities. The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures; family planning; maternity and midwifery services; surgical procedures, and treatment of disease, disorder and injury.
Regulated activities are delivered to the patient population from the following address:
216 Slag Lane
Lowton
Warrington
Cheshire
WA3 2EZ
The practice has a website that contains comprehensive information about what they do to support their patient population and the in house and online services offered:
There is one lead GP (male) supported by a locum GP (female), and they are supported by a practice nurse and a healthcare assistant. There is also a practice manager and supporting administration staff.
The age profile of the practice population is broadly in line with the CCG averages. Information taken from Public Health England placed the area in which the practice is located in the seventh least deprived decile (from a possible range of between 1 and 10). In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services.
Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the surgery and they will be directed to the local out of hours service which is provided by Bridgewater NHS Foundation Trust –through NHS 111. Additionally patients can access GP services in the evening and on Saturdays and Sundays through the Wigan GP access alliance at locations across Wigan Borough.
Updated
16 July 2018
This practice is rated as Good overall.
The key questions at this inspection are rated as:
Are services safe? – Good
Are services effective? – Good
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? - Good
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Slag Lane Medical Centre on 21 June 2018 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
At this inspection we found:
- The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
- The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it 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.
- Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
- Patient feedback on the care and treatment delivered by all staff was consistently positive.
- The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
- There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
We saw one area of outstanding practice:
The GP in collaboration with the CCG medicines management technician, developed a protocol to capture monitoring of red and amber shared protocol drugs which required regular monitoring but did not come under QOF (Quality outcomes framework) or shared care protocols. This was for safe prescribing and to reduce medication errors. This will be presented to the CCG medicines management group and, if accepted, rolled out to all practices across the Wigan Borough footprint.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.