Billinge Medical Practice near St Helens and Wigan in Merseyside, has improved from inadequate to good following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in September and October.
The practice delivers services to a population of around 7,500 people in and around Billinge.
The inspection was carried out to follow up on improvements CQC told the practice to make at a previous inspection. At that time, inspectors found poor management of systems important to people’s safety. This inspection found significant improvements addressing these concerns and it has been removed from special measures.
At the latest inspection, CQC found the practice had made significant improvements and its overall rating, as well as the areas of safe, responsive, and well-led, have improved from inadequate to good. The ratings for effective and caring have gone up from requires improvement to good.
Karen Knapton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north said:
“When we inspected Billinge Medical Practice, we were pleased to find significant improvements had been made in response to concerns raised at our previous inspection, including to its management systems and ensuring it was providing safe care and treatment.
“The practice had made changes to staffing and improved access, which had resulted in better care for people. This had been reflected in positive feedback from the Patient Participation Group survey and National GP Patient Survey, where people noted improved access by phone, to appointments, and to additional services.
“We found a positive and open culture where safety was a priority and staff took all concerns seriously. For example, the practice was now ensuring that follow-up actions for staff were addressed quickly, such as when someone had been referred for investigations with a specialist. It had also introduced a new system to record and investigate complaints which had resulted in changes that improved care for others.
“Medicines were being managed safely, with staff regularly checking stock levels and expiry dates for all medicines and carrying out medicine reviews as needed. The practice had good systems to manage and respond to safety alerts and medicine recalls and there were suitable processes for staff to dispense medicines.
“Everyone at Billinge Medical Practice should be proud of the improvements they’ve made which has resulted in their overall rating improving from inadequate to good and removed from special measures.
“We’ve shared our findings with the practice so that they can continue to build on the improvements we saw, and we’ll continue to monitor it to make sure these changes are sustained long term.”
Inspectors found:
- Staff treated people with kindness and respect. They were clear about their responsibilities, including how to safeguard people and support people’s individual needs
- The practice worked in partnership with stakeholders to improve services for people in the local area. Leaders encouraged staff to speak up with ideas for improvement and innovation and they had clear improvement plans in place to make further changes
- Staff supported people to manage their health and wellbeing. This included intervention with people at risk of diabetes or referring people for services to stop smoking
- The practice was working to encourage people to attend cancer screening and vaccinations offered as part of national programmes
- The premises were not owned by the practice and this caused challenges with some changes it wanted to implement, such as with adding keypads to doors to improve security.