The Strand Medical Centre

Updated 24 January 2024

The Strand Medical Centre is located in Bootle, Merseyside.

Address: 272 Marsh Lane, Bootle, Merseyside, L20 5BW.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities;

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures (*delete as required).

The practice is situated within the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of approximately 7,500 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of South Sefton primary care network (PCN).

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (1 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 1% Asian, 97.2% White, 0.3% Black, 1% Mixed, and 0.5% Other.

The service is provided by a team of 3 GPs partners who are supported by 2 salaried GPs. The team includes 2 practice nurses and 2 health care assistants. The clinical team are supported by a practice manager and team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Outside of practice opening hours patients can access the out of hours GP by calling the NHS 111 service. Out of hours services are provided by Primary Care 24 (Merseyside) Limited. Extended access is provided locally by another service provider, where late evening and weekend appointments are available

Updated 24 January 2024

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Strand Medical Centre on 4 and 8 December 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Strand Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way that 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:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit
• Staff feedback surveys

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We have rated this practice as Good overall.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Improve patient monitoring linked to the prescribing of medicines and introduce a plan for managing patients who do not attend for monitoring.
• Ensure immunisation status checks have been obtained for all relevant staff.
• Continue taking action to increase the number of patients undertaking cancer screening.
• Review ‘do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions to ensure all required documentation is maintained.
• Risk assess the security of the premises and take action to mitigate risks.
• Review historic patient safety alerts to ensure these have been implemented and reviewed consistently.

We noted an area of practice that was outstanding;

The practice provided a transgender service in the locality, providing specialist care for this patient group. The practice had achieved a LGBT foundation ‘Pride in practice’ gold award. The provider’s assessment and treatment pathways had been adopted in 2020 as a national pilot for gender identity clinics as part of a specialised commissioning for transgender services. The provider had delivered training seminars about their LGBT provision in local secondary schools, a prison, local NHS Trusts, a sexual health service and a local council service.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care