The Priory Medical Centre

Updated 1 September 2022

The Priory Medical Centre is located in Liverpool at:

Belmont Grove

Liverpool

Merseyside

L6 4EW

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 10,750. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (one 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 92.9% white, 2.1% Asian, 2.2% Black, 1.6% Mixed, and 1.2% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more working age patients registered at the practice.

There is a team of five GP partners and six salaried GP’s. The practice has a team of three nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions. The GPs are supported at the practice by an IT facilitator, practice manger, deputy practice manager, reception/administration staff, health care assistant, cleaners and a care taker.

The practice is open between 08:00-18:30 Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Out of hours services are provided by two local walk in centre and NHS 111.

Updated 1 September 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at The Priory Medical Centre on 15 and 24 June 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Requires improvement

Effective - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 8 July 2016, the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which 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.

• 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

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:

• The practice had made adjustments associated with the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that patients were kept safe and protected from avoidable harm.
• Staff told us they felt supported by the management team and if they raised concerns these would be listened to and acted upon.
• The practice had an open and supportive culture, where there was a focus on improvement.

However:

• We found some patients prescribed high risk medication had not had the appropriate monitoring.
• Historical safety alerts were not always considered when prescribing medicines.
• We found safeguarding training had not been completed by all staff in line with the latest intercollegiate guidance.
• We found gaps in the recruitment and induction documentation.
• Incidents were not always reported and recorded in one system. Records of clinical audits had not been kept.

We found one breach of regulation. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

The provider should:

• Review the infection prevention audit template to reference COVID-19 measures and guidance.
• Continue to monitor and improve cervical screening uptake.

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