The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Fallowfield Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

75 Ladybarn Lane, Fallowfield, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M14 6YL (0161) 224 4503

Provided and run by:
Fallowfield Medical Centre

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Fallowfield Medical Centre is a NHS GP practice which provides primary care services for patients living in Fallowfield, Manchester. We carried out an announced responsive assessment of one quality statement, equity in access, under the key question 'Responsive' at Fallowfield Medical Centre on 8th March 2024. We carried out the assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet people’s demands for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers. We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people 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. However, in this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. The assessment of the quality statement, equity of access, includes looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement. At this assessment we found that overall people could access services when they need to, without physical or digital barriers, including out of normal hours and in an emergency. The practice understood the challenges to patient access and responded to patient needs including those who were most likely to have difficulty accessing care. The practice sought out and used feedback and other data/ information to continually monitor and improve access, understood the challenges to patient access and responded accordingly. Overall, the practice is rated as good and the key question responsive continues to be rated as providing a good service.

23 Jan 2019

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fallowfield Medical Centre on 23 January 2019. This was the first inspection of this GP practice under this registered provider.

The GP partnership, took over this practice in early 2016 and the registration of the service with the CQC was completed in June 2018

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 and good for all population groups.

We found that:

  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
  • The practice was responsive to need of vulnerable patients and offered direct telephone access to Citizen’s Advice. The practice was a designated homeless friendly and war veteran friendly GP surgery.
  • The practice did not have a defibrillator available at the surgery. The practice supplied a risk assessment which detailed the actions the practice staff team would take to respond to a cardiac arrest.
  • Following the inspection, the practice reviewed the range of emergency medicines available and increased those available to mitigate the potential risks to patients.
  • There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Review and consider the Resuscitation Council (UK) guidance which indicates an automated external defibrillator (AED) should be available within a primary care setting for immediate use.
  • Improve the practice’s final written response to complaints to ensure details of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's (PHSO) are included.
  • Continue to seek solutions to improve patient access and continue to promote and develop the patient participation group.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice