The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

The Strand Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

272 Marsh Lane, Bootle, Merseyside, L20 5BW (0151) 922 1600

Provided and run by:
The Strand Medical Centre

All Inspections

8 December 2023

During a routine inspection

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

5 January 2018

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection November 2014 – Good)

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? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Oliver, Ferguson & Gozzelino known as Strand Medical Centre on 5 January 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. 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.

  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We saw areas of outstanding practice in providing responsive services for people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act, and people who were in vulnerable circumstances or who had complex needs. For example:

  • The practice with the support of the clinical commissioning group (CCG) had set up a transgender clinic to support this group of patients to access appropriate and supportive healthcare locally. This specialist clinic had been set up to support both the practice’s transgender patients as well as those patients who were registered with other practices from theirs and the neighbouring CCG.

  • The practice offered all patients HIV testing to support early diagnosis and timely treatment and intervention. As part of this work the practice also offered training and learning sessions to GPs to enable them to normalise discussions around HIV testing.

  • The practice staff spoke five different languages (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Hindi and Urdu) to support patients where English was not their first language.

  • The practice supported refugee families who had moved to the local area.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • A copy of the electrical wiring safety certificate should be supplied to CQC.

  • The practice should continue to monitor the effectiveness of the changes made to the systems supporting infection control and prevention.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP Chief Inspector of General Practice

11 November 2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report from our inspection of Dr Morris, Oliver, Ferguson & Gozzelino at the location the Strand Medical Centre which is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services.

We undertook a planned, comprehensive inspection on the 11 November 2014 at the Strand Medical Centre. We reviewed information we held about the services including patients’ comments and spoke with GPs, staff and patients.

Dr Morris, Oliver, Ferguson & Gozzelino are rated as good overall.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The premises were clean and tidy. Systems were in place to ensure medication including vaccines were appropriately stored and in date.
  • The practice was effective. Patients had their needs assessed in line with current guidance and the practice promoted health education to empower patients to live healthier lives.
  • The practice was caring. Feedback from patients and observations throughout our inspection highlighted that the staff were kind, caring and helpful. Patients we spoke with felt involved in treatment decisions.
  • The practice was responsive and acted on patient complaints and feedback.
  • The staff worked exceptionally well together as a team.

However, there were also areas of the practice where the provider could make improvements.

The provider should:

  • Put systems in place to monitor the use of prescriptions in line with national guidance to prevent inappropriate use of prescription forms.
  • Document any staff meetings to ensure good communications between staff, for example, regarding learning points from incidents or complaints.
  • Carry out a Legionella risk assessment.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice