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Archived: Fairmore Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Rossendale Primary Healthcare Centre, 161 Bacup Road, Rossendale, Lancashire, BB4 7PL

Provided and run by:
Padiham Group Practice

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 20 September 2018

Fairmore Medical Practice is situated in a purpose-built health centre in Rossendale, East Lancashire (Rossendale Primary Healthcare Centre, 161 Bacup Road, Rossendale, BB4 7PL). The site includes ample parking, including disabled spaces as well as ramped access for those patients with mobility difficulties. The practice also operates two other branch surgeries; one in Padiham (Padiham Primary Health Care Centre, Station Road, Padiham, BB12 8EA) and another in Nelson (211-213 Leeds Road, Nelson, BB9 8EH). For this inspection we visited the main location site in Rossendale as well as the Padiham branch. At the time of our inspection the provider was engaging in a consultation with patients with a view to relocating the Nelson branch site from its current address into Pendle Community Hospital.

The practice is part of the NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Services are delivered under an Alternative Provider Medical Service (APMS) contract with NHS England. There are approximately 6000 registered patients.

The regulated activities of surgical procedures, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures and maternity and midwifery services are provided from the practice by the registered provider Padiham Group Practice.

While Padiham Group Practice is the lead provider and therefore registered as such with CQC, the provider running the practice is a collaboration between Padiham Group Practice, Waterfoot Group of Doctors and East Lancashire Hospitals Trust, known as PWE Healthcare. The organisation also manages another GP practice in the area.

Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as level three on a scale of one to 10. Level one represents the highest level of deprivation and level 10 the lowest.

The average life expectancy of the practice population is below the local and national averages for both males and females (80.3 years for females, compared to CCG average of 81.4 and national average of 83.2 and 76.5 years for males compared to CCG average of 76.9 and national average of 79.2).

The practice patient list has a higher proportion of younger patients when compared to the average GP practice in England. For example, 27.8% are aged under 18 years (22.5% locally and 20.8% nationally). Conversely, the practice has a lower proportion of older patients, with 8% of patients being over 65 years of age (17.1% both locally and nationally) and 2.8% being older than 75 years (7.2% locally and 7.7% nationally). The practice has 54% of its population with a long-standing health condition, which is in line with the local average of 56% and the England average of 54%.

The practice is staffed by two salaried GPs (both female). They are supported by an operational manager who also works across the provider’s other sites, a practice nurse, a health care assistant and an administration team including secretaries and reception staff. At the time of inspection the provider was currently recruiting for additional clinical (both GP and practice nurse) and non clinical staff.

When the practice is closed patients are asked to contact NHS 111 for Out of Hours GP care, provided locally by East Lancashire Medical Services.

The current provider took over the practice in October 2017. Therefore, unless stated, data and results used throughout the report relate to the previous registered provider.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 20 September 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall. This is the first time we have inspected this location under its registration with the current provider.

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 Fairmore Medical Practice on 12 July 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. We saw from practice records and discussions with staff that systems were effective in ensuring learning from incidents and complaints were shared and implemented.
  • 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.
  • A methodical approach had been implemented by the provider in understanding areas for development within the practice and clear action plans formulated to address them.
  • 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.
  • Staff told us they felt supported by practice leaders. A clarified staffing structure had been implemented by the provider and staff we spoke with demonstrated a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice gave patients with dementia appointment cards which provided written summaries of consultation details, outcomes and any follow up required to take home as a reminder and to share with family and friends as required after the consultation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Complaints literature should be readily available for patients attending the practice.

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.