Fir Park Medical Centre

Updated 16 June 2023

Fir Park Medical Centre is located in Widnes, Cheshire at:

Fir Park Medical Centre

Lanark Gardens

Widnes

WA8 9DT

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 is situated within the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 11,940. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices, Widnes Primary Care Network (PCN).

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (four 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 97.9 White, 1% Mixed, 0.8% Asian and 0.2% Black.

There is a team of six GPs (including four GP partners). one nurse prescriber, four practice nurses and two health care assistants. In addition, patients are able to access services provided by staff employed by the PCN, which includes a paramedic. The clinicians are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff, practice manager and deputy practice manager. The practice manager and deputy practice manager had been in post for under 12 months. Fir Park Medical Centre is a training practice for Foundation Year two doctors, GP trainees and medical students.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday, Tuesday and Friday, 8am – 8pm on Wednesday and 7am – 6.30pm on Thursday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and pre-bookable appointments.

Extended access is provided at the practice and locally by GP Extra Service, operated by Widnes Highfield Health where late evening and weekend appointments are available. For out of hours services patients are directed to contact 111.

Updated 16 June 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fir Park Medical Centre on 9 and 15 May 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - requires improvement

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - good

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 6 January 2016, the practice was rated good overall and good for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

We reviewed the following key questions:

Is it safe?

Is it effective?

Is it caring?

Is it responsive?

Is it well-led?

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A site visit.

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:

• Safe practices were in operation in a number of areas including staff recruitment, the maintenance of the premises and infection prevention and control.
• The provider worked with external professionals to support the health and welfare of patients.
• The provider had acted on patient feedback to improve patient’s experiences of using the service.
• The provider was monitoring access to appointments and had made changes to improve access.
• Staff told us they were well supported, there was good communication and positive relationships.

However:

• There was not an effective system in place to ensure Patient Group Directions (PGD) were appropriately authorised for the nursing team to administer medicines such as vaccines.
• The systems in place for the management of long-term conditions, patient safety alerts and high-risk medication had not consistently ensured patients had the required health monitoring.

We found one breach of regulations. The provider must:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider should:

• Take steps to ensure alerts are placed on family members records when there are child safeguarding concerns.
• Take action to monitor emergency medication weekly as recommended by the Resuscitation Council UK guidelines.
• Record the monitoring undertaken of the referrals and consultations of staff employed in advanced clinical practice.
• Continue to monitor and improve the uptake of cervical screening.
• Establish a system to check Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions and document all the required information.
• Continue to monitor staff update training and appraisals to ensure these are all completed in a timely manner.
• Continue to monitor phone access and access to face-to-face appointments and undertake a review of patients opinion about access, including Econsult.

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