The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Flixton Road Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

132 Flixton Road, Urmston, Manchester, Lancashire, M41 5BG (0161) 748 2021

Provided and run by:
Flixton Road Medical Centre

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Flixton Road Medical Centre is an NHS GP practice which provides primary care services to patients in the Trafford area of Greater Manchester. We carried out an announced assessment of one quality statement, equity of access, under the key question Responsive at Flixton Road Medical Centre on the 18 March 2024. We carried out the assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet peoples demands for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers. We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know staff are carrying this out whilst the demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. However, in this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. The assessment of the quality statement equity of access includes looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement. Overall, the practice is rated as good and the key question responsive continues to be rated as providing a good service. We found that the practice acknowledged and understood their patient population. They had organised services to meet patients’ needs, particularly those who were most likely to have difficulty accessing care, so that people can access care, treatment and support when they need it and in a way that works for them. The practice sought out and used feedback and other data/information to monitor and improve access.

During a routine inspection

This practice was first inspected in January 2015 when they were rated Good. On 22 October 2018 we inspected again as part of our inspection programme and found them to require improvement. The areas for improvement were in the safe and well led domains.

We carried out an announced full comprehensive inspection at Flixton Road Medical Centre on 8 May 2019 as part of our inspection programme to check whether the practice had implemented and maintained improvement.

The population groups in effective and responsive are all rated good.

The practice is rated Good overall.

At this inspection we found:

  • There were systems in place 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. We saw examples where improvements had been made and care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
  • Systems to manage read coding, prescribing, medical alerts and care planning were improved and consistency and safety was being maintained.
  • The systems to manage medicines safely were improved and were now being consistently applied.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they could access care when they needed it.
  • The governance structure had improved and encouraged whole team working. Clinical discussions regularly took place and were attended by nurses and communication overall was being consistently disseminated to all staff.
  • The weekly newsletter was an asset to communication about changes and news at the practice.
  • There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation and the practice supported trainee GPs and mentored nurses.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

22 October 2018

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as Requires improvement overall. (Previous rating January 2015 – Good)

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires Improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires Improvement

The population groups in effective were rated good overall.

The population groups in the responsive domain were all rated good.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Flixton Road Medical Centre on 22 October 2018 as part of our inspection programme

At this inspection we found:

  • There were systems in place 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. However, we saw examples where care and treatment had not been delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
  • Systems to manage read coding, prescribing, medical alerts and care planning required improvement in order to ensure consistency and safety.
  • The systems to manage medicines safely were not consistently applied.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they could access care when they needed it.
  • The governance structure did not encourage whole team working. Clinical discussions regularly took place but were not attended by nurses. However, communication about changes or news at the practice was disseminated weekly to reception and nursing staff by newsletter.
  • There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation and the practice supported trainee GPs.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

  • Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients
  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Improve meeting minutes to ensure that consistent information is channelled from one meeting to another.
  • Improve whole-team working.
  • Improve identification of carers
  • Improve risk management overall

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

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

7 January 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Flixton Road Medical Centre on 7 January 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

We found the practice to be good for providing safe, caring, responsive and well-led services. It was also good for providing services to all the population groups. The practice required improvements in the way they provided effective services.

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

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
  • 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 and easy to understand.
  • Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a GP and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider should

  • Ensure reception staff are aware of the Gillick competencies and the right for young people to attend the practice without a parent.
  • Ensure there are processes in place to collect the views of patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice