Background to this inspection
Updated
20 March 2019
Waterloo Medical Practice is situated within the South Shore area of Blackpool at 178 Waterloo Road, Blackpool, Lancashire, FY4 3AD. It is part of the NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG.) and services are provided under a personal medical service (PMS) contract with NHS England. Information on services offered can be found on the practice website at www.waterloomedical.co.uk.
The practice is situated on a busy main road with limited parking on site for patients but on-street parking is available nearby. The practice is easily accessible by public transport. Services are provided from a purpose-built surgery building with all consultation rooms situated on the ground floor with wheelchair access.
The practice provides services to approximately 11,916 registered patients. The practice patient population profile is similar to the national profile although there are more patients aged between 45 and 60 years of age (22.4%) than nationally (20.3%). There are more patients with long-standing health conditions (61.5%) than the national average of 53.7% and more unemployed patients (10.2%) than nationally (4.9%). Life expectancy for men at the practice is 73.7 years of age compared to 79.2 nationally and for women, 79.6 years of age compared to 83.2 nationally.
Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as one on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.
The practice clinical team is made up of five GP partners (three male, two female), and two salaried GPs (one male, one female). The practice also has four practice nurses, one of whom acts as the nurse manager and two of whom are nurse prescribers, a prescribing pharmacist and two healthcare assistants. The practice administration team is led by the practice manager assisted by an assistant practice manager, a reception supervisor and a team of reception and administration staff. The practice also shares the services of a prescribing nurse practitioner employed by a neighbouring practice. The practice participates in the training of new GPs and teaching medical students. At the time of our inspection, there were two trainee GPs working at the practice and no medical students.
When the practice is closed, a telephone voicemail service directs patients to dial NHS 111 for advice and if necessary, onward referral to the out of hours service provided locally by the urgent care centre.
The practice is registered with CQC to provide treatment of disease, disorder or injury, family planning services, surgical procedures and diagnostic and screening procedures as their regulated activities.
Updated
20 March 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Waterloo Medical Centre on 27 November 2018 as part of our inspection programme. We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services and good overall.
The full comprehensive report on the November 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Waterloo Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
At our inspection in November 2018 we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:
- Safeguarding systems were incomplete.
- Systems to record the monitoring information for patients taking blood-thinning medicines needed review.
- Not all staff who acted as chaperones had been risk assessed for the role.
- Actions taken as a result of infection prevention and control (IPC) audits and checks made on the practice defibrillator were not recorded.
- Workflow management systems were not comprehensive.
We also indicated improvements should be made as follows:
- Review processes used to enrol patients in the practice patient participation group (PPG) to establish and engage with a new PPG.
- Document discussions with new staff members in relation to pre-existing health conditions.
On 6 March 2019, we carried out a focused, desk-based inspection of the safe key question. We reviewed evidence submitted by the practice to confirm it had carried out the plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations identified in our previous inspection on 27 November 2018. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.
At this inspection, we found that the provider had satisfactorily addressed all legal requirements and suggestions for improvements.
We have rated this practice as good for providing safe services.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- Safeguarding systems had been strengthened and only staff named in the practice chaperoning policy acted as chaperones.
- The system for recording the monitoring of patients taking blood-thinning medicines had been strengthened.
- An action plan had been produced for the IPC audit and all actions had been completed. Documented checks were made on the practice defibrillator.
- The workflow management system had been reviewed.
- A new “work health assessment” process had been introduced for newly-recruited staff.
- The practice had produced a plan to initiate a new PPG which was already underway.
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