Stable Fold Surgery

Updated 23 May 2023

Stable Fold Surgery is located in Bolton at:

119 Church Street

Westhoughton

Bolton

Lancashire

BL5 3SF

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

The provider is not currently registered for the regulated activity of Maternity and midwifery services. The provider is required to deliver several maternity medical services, including a maternal check at 6 - 8 weeks after birth.

Therefore, the provider needs to apply to add the Regulated Activity of Maternity and midwifery services to their registration.

The practice is situated within the Greater Manchester Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services to a patient population of about 6960. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the second lowest decile (two 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 95.9% White, 2.3% Asian, 1.4% Mixed, 0.3% Black, and 0.2% Other.

The provider is a partnership consisting of two partners and two salaried GPs, three male and one female. There is an advanced nurse practitioner, two practice nurses and a healthcare assistant. They are supported by a practice manager, assistant practice manager and administrative and support staff. There are also several specialists who work within the

practice that are employed by the Primary Care Network or the local ICS. These include a mental health practitioner, a clinical pharmacist, a social prescriber, health improvement practitioners and a musculoskeletal practitioner.

Extended access is provided locally by Primary Care Network, where late evening and weekend appointments are available.

Updated 23 May 2023

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Stable Fold Surgery on 21 April 2023. Overall, the practice is rated good.

Safe - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Effective - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Caring - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Responsive - requires improvement

Well-led - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

The overall rating for this practice is Good. At our previous inspection on 31 January 2020 the practice was rated requires improvement for providing a responsive service. This was in the main due to significantly lower than average national GP survey results in relation to ‘how easy it was to get through to someone at their GP practice on the phone’. The practice was also rated as requires improvement in effective for people with long term conditions due to the lower than average outcomes for people with long term conditions.

We completed a desktop review focused on responseive and effective on 19 May 2021. The desktop review confirmed some improvements had been made in relation to people with long term conditions, which was rated as good, however improvements still needed to be made to how people are able to contact the practice by telephone.

At this inspection on 21 April 2023, we found that the national GP survey results, in relation to ‘how easy it was to get through to someone at their GP practice on the phone’ were still significantly lower than average. Since this data was collected the practice has installed a new phone system to improve access for patients.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up concerns from a previous inspection. The review focused on the responsive key question.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out as a desktop review, we did not visit the location.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.

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 found that:

• Patients could not always access care and treatment in a timely way.

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

• Apply to deliver the Regulated Activity of maternity and midwifery services without delay
• Take action to evaluate the impact of the new phone system on patient experience.
• Follow the complaints policy for all complaints.

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 Healthcare