Slag Lane Medical Centre

Updated 16 September 2022

Slag Lane Medical Centre is located in Lowton at:

216 Slag Lane

Lowton

Warrington

Cheshire

WA3 2EZ

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

The practice delivers a General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of 4414 at the time of inspection. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices (Liga (Lowton, Ince, Golborne and Ashton)) Primary Care Network (PCN)) and is part of the Wigan locality of the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the seventh highest decile (seven 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 98% White and 2% Other. The majority of patients are within the 15 to 64 age group.

There is a GP Principal, two long term locum GPs (one male/one female), one advanced nurse practitioner, one practice nurse and one health care assistant. There is also a practice manager and supporting administration staff. The practice is supported from the Primary Care Network (PCN) by mental health practitioners and a psychiatrist, physiotherapist, care coordinator and two clinical pharmacists.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the surgery and they will be directed to the local out of hours service which is provided through NHS 111. Additionally, patients can access GP services in the evening and on Saturdays and Sundays through the Wigan GP access alliance at locations across Wigan Borough.

The practice is a training practice.

Updated 16 September 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Slag Lane Medical Centre on 25 August 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe -Good

Effective -Good

Caring – Good

Responsive – Good

Well-led - Outstanding

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We undertook this inspection due to changes to the registration.

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.

This inspection included:

• A site visit by the lead inspector.
• Conducting staff interviews remotely and on site.
• Completing clinical searches remotely on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider.
• Reviewing patient records remotely to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• Gaining feedback from staff by using staff questionnaires.

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 rated the practice as outstanding for providing a well-led service because:

• The practice management team were motivating, forward thinking, organised and innovative with a sensible approach and clear goals. Staff told us they received excellent support and encouragement from the leadership team to do this. The practice management team were compassionate and caring. Quality and integrity were a high priority resulting in a caring culture within a strong practice. There were opportunities provided for all staff for their personal development.
• The leadership, governance and culture were used to drive and improve the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.
• There was strong collaboration across all staff and a common focus on engaging with patients and other services to improve quality of care and the patient experience.
• The practice embraced social prescribing for the community to ensure patients received timely intervention when they needed it most, signposted them to services that could help them and ensured support was offered locally so the patient population could easily attend appointments.
• The practice principal GP was a medical director of the Primary Care Network and ensured best practice was shared amongst the members.

We have rated this practice as good for providing safe, effective, caring and responsive services because:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• Slag Lane Medical Centre provided advice and guidance for palliative care patients. This was via an electronic referral which provided access to specialist clinical advice. The aim of this was to avoid unnecessary outpatient referrals and lengthy waiting times for an outpatient appointment. The Practice noticed that there was a gap for advice and guidance for palliative care. The practice identified there was no direct route of communication for primary care to contact a patient’s consultant where advice may be required. The principal GP worked with the Assistant Director of Commissioning and Transformation of Planned Care the Medical Director of Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh Acute Trust on this service. This had now been introduced for all patients across the Wigan Borough footprint. Primary Care now had direct access to directly speak with speciality consultants and access to advice and care for the patient was now quicker.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services