Blackburn Road Medical Centre

Updated 15 January 2020

The inspection team comprised a CQC inspector and a GP specialist adviser.

The service operates from three sites:

1.Blackburn Road Medical Centre, Birstall, WF17 9PL

2.Cleckheaton Group Practice, Church Street, Cleckheaton, BD19 3RQ

3.Calder View Surgery, Wellington Road, Dewsbury, WF13 1HN

We visited the Blackburn Road site during our inspection.

The Wellington Road site operates a service one day per month only. Services offered include treatments for eczema, psoriasis, alopecia (hair loss) and acne. Patients are referred into the service by their own GP to receive treatment. Care is delivered by two male GP partners with special interest (GPwSI) in dermatology who act as directors of the service. They are supported by three additional GPwSI, two male and one female. The clinical team also includes one female specialist nurse.

Additional expertise is provided by two consultant dermatologists, one male and one female, who are able to provide advice and support for more complex dermatological conditions. Each consultant delivers an evening clinic once a month in conjunction with the GPs.

Non-clinical support is provided by a service manager and a small team of administrative and secretarial staff.

The service is open between 8.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday, with appointments available up to 7.30pm on some evenings, with Saturday appointments available when required. Patients who have been referred into the service by their own GP are able to opt for a venue and time to suit them via the ‘choose and book’ service.

There are no restrictions in relation to the age of patients treated by the service.

This service is registered with the CQC under the Health and Social Care Act to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

• Surgical procedures

How we inspected this service

We informed North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group that we were inspecting the service. We did not receive any information of concern from them. During the inspection we interviewed staff and reviewed relevant documents and patient records.

We spoke with two patients in the waiting area, and reviewed CQC patient comment cards. In addition, we observed some telephone interaction between staff and patients.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?

• Is it effective?

• Is it caring?

• Is it responsive to people’s needs?

• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 15 January 2020

This service is rated as Good overall.

The service had previously been inspected in August 2018 and was found to be providing services in accordance with relevant regulations. At that time, independent providers of regulated activities were not rated by the Care Quality Commission.

At this latest inspection the key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Blackburn Road Medical Centre on 10 June 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

PriDerm LLP Community Dermatology Service (Blackburn Road Medical Centre) provides a medical diagnostic and treatment service for the provision of community based dermatology.

One of the directors is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the

Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’.

Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. There were seven comment cards completed. All these cards contained positive feedback from patients who accessed the diagnostic and screening assessment service.

We also reviewed internal patient satisfaction survey results from surveys completed after their assessments and consultations at the service. We found that these were consistently positive.

Our key findings were:

• There was an effective overarching governance framework which supported strategic objectives, performance management and the delivery of quality care.

• The service provided community based access to specialist dermatology expertise and treatment in a timely manner, including access to consultant dermatologists when required.

• Clear referral, consultation and discharge summaries were in use which ensured consistent communication and information sharing with patients’ own GPs.

• There were systems in place to report and record safety incidents or near misses.

• The service undertook relevant quality improvement activity to review and improve the effectiveness of care provided. Care and treatment was delivered in line with current evidence based guidance.

• Patients remained under the care of the service until their condition was resolved, or alternative care and treatment pathways had been established.

• Clinicians were committed to improving the outcomes of patients and delivering quality care.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care