Long Lane Medical Centre

Updated 20 May 2016

Long Lane Medical Centre is based in a deprived area of Liverpool. There were 7998 patients on the practice register at the time of our inspection.

The practice is a training practice managed by seven partners (six GPs-four male, two female and a female nurse clinician). The practice has a regular locum and a trainee GP. There is a health care practitioner and two practice nurses. Members of clinical staff are supported by a practice manager, reception and administration staff.

The practice is open 8.30am to 6.30pm every weekday. The practice offers extended opening hours every Thursday evening between 6.30pm to8.30pm.

Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the GP out of hours service, provided by Urgent Care 24 by calling 111.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract and has enhanced services contracts which include childhood vaccinations.

Updated 20 May 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Long Lane Medical Centre on 21 April 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• The practice had good facilities including disabled access, translation services and a hearing loop. The practice was tidy but some flooring and cleaning equipment needed replacing. Recommended guidance needed to be followed to ensure the standard of cleanliness in the building was maintained.

• There were systems in place to mitigate safety risks including analysing significant events and safeguarding.

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation.

• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available. The practice sought patient views about improvements that could be made to the service; including having a patient participation group (PPG) and acted, where possible, on feedback.

• Many of the staff had worked at the practice for a long time and knew the patients well. Staff worked well together as a team and all felt supported to carry out their roles.

There was an example of outstanding practice:

• The practice dedicated one session a week for one of the GP partners to work on quality improvement. Part of this role involved resourcing new information and guidance and cascading this information to weekly clinical meetings for discussion with all clinicians. In addition, the GP produced a simplified version of the guidance. This outlined the key points for ease of reference and to promote a unified approach to following the guidance.

However, the areas where the provider should make improvements are.

• Replace vinyl flooring and cleaning equipment (where necessary) and also follow relevant guidance to help improve the standard of cleanliness of the building.

• Have a monitoring system in place for any blank prescriptions still in stock.

• For clinicians to improve their understanding of current legislation in relation to reporting deaths to the coroner for patients subject to deprivation of liberty safeguards (DoLS).

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 20 May 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people with long term conditions.  The practice had registers in place for several long term conditions including diabetes and asthma. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 20 May 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for families, children and young people. The practice regularly liaised with health visitors to review vulnerable children and new mothers. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances.

Updated 20 May 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and offered home visits and care home visits. The practice participated in meetings with other healthcare professionals to discuss any concerns. There was a named GP for the over 75s. 

Updated 20 May 2016

The practice is as rated good for providing services for working age people. The needs of this population group had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible. There were online systems available to allow patients to make appointments and extended hours from 6.30pm to 8.30pm were available every Thursday evening.

Updated 20 May 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people experiencing poor mental health. Patients experiencing poor mental health received an invitation for an annual physical health check. Those that did not attend had alerts placed on their records so they could be reviewed opportunistically.  The practice worked with local mental health teams.

Updated 20 May 2016

The practice is rated as good for providing services for people whose circumstances make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those with a learning disability. It had carried out annual health checks and longer appointments were available for people with a learning disability.