Willow Wood Surgery

Updated 8 October 2024

Willow Wood Surgery is a GP practice which provides a range of primary medical services from its location Wharton Primary Healthcare Centre, Crook Lane, Winsford, CW7 3GY. The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. This assessment was carried out on 15 and 24 October 2024 in response to concerns received about the service. We assessed three key questions to establish if the services provided are safe, effective and well-led. We rated the safe and effective key questions as good. We rated the well-led key question as requires improvement. This was because we identified a breach of the legal regulations in relation to good governance. Some of the governance processes for assessing, monitoring and mitigating risks were not fully effective. This was particularly in relation to; the management of an environmental risk to staff, the safe management of sharps, the process for managing patient group directions, the process for managing advanced decisions, a lack of assessment of the impact of the current management arrangements in response to staff feedback and a lack of assessment of the risk and impact of a breakdown in communication at a partnership/leadership level. We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the patients 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.

Updated 8 October 2024

The provider encouraged and used feedback from people who used the service to make improvements. Feedback that we reviewed showed that patient experience of the service was positive overall. The results of the National GP Patient Survey were similar to or higher than local and nation average scores for patient satisfaction. The results showed that patients generally felt positive about their overall experience of the service; patients felt listened to, treated with care and concern, involved in decisions about their care and treatment, and had confidence and trust in the healthcare professionals involved. The service received low numbers of written complaints and both verbal and written complaints were investigated, responded to and used to drive improvement. People who used the service were given the opportunity to provide feedback to CQC via a link on the provider’s website. We received 41 responses from people and the vast majority of these were very positive.