Background to this inspection
Updated
22 January 2019
Barlow Medical Centre, is located at 828 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury in Manchester. The practice is part of the NHS Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services under a General Medical Services contract with NHS England. It has 14962 patients on its register. The practice website address is www.barlowmed.com
Barlow Medical Centre is a purpose-built GP practice situated on a main road in the Didsbury area of south Manchester. The building provides spacious consultation and meeting rooms. The ground and first floor provide patient consultation rooms and there is a passenger lift for those with mobility issues. Car parking is available.
The practice has four male and two female GP partners, four female and two male salaried GPs two trainee GPs and two post graduate doctors undertaking foundation training. The GPs are supported with a team of five practice nurses that include one nurse practitioner and one treatment room nurse. In addition, there are two health care assistants, a practice manager, an assistant practice manager and several administrative and reception team members.
The surgery is open from 8am until 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice is a designated hub site to provide extended access to patients living in the South Manchester area. The practice provides extended access in an evening until 8pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. In addition, early morning access is also offered on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings between 7.30am and 8am. The practice is also open one weekend in four offering appointments from 10am until 2pm.
Out of hours services are accessed via NHS 111.
The practice is a training practice supporting GPs in training and newly qualified doctors.
Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as level seven on a scale of one to 10. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level 10 the lowest.
The numbers of patients in the different age groups on the GP practice register is generally similar to or slightly below the averages for GP practices in England. The practice has a higher percentage (60.9%) of its population with a long-standing health condition when compared to the local CCG average (53.2%) and the England average (53.6%). The practice has 71.4% of its population with a status of being in paid work or in full-time education, which is higher that the CCG average (62.9%) and the England average (61.9%). A total of 1.3% of the practice population is unemployed which is below the CCG average (8.7%) and the England average (4.9%).
The practice provides, surgical procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures as their regulated activities.
Updated
22 January 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Barlow Medical Centre on 13 December 2018 as part of our inspection programme. Our inspection team was led by a CQC inspector and included a GP specialist advisor.
At the last inspection in July 2015 we rated the practice as good overall.
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 outstanding overall.
We rated the practice as outstanding for providing responsive services because:
- Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. The practice used technology to enable patients to access advice and support. A range of additional inhouse services were available and services were delivered in a flexible way that ensured choice and continuity of care.
- The practice recognised the different challenges vulnerable adults and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) faced. Services were tailored to meet the needs of these population groups and these were delivered in a way to ensure effective care and treatment was delivered and monitored.
We rated the practice as outstanding for providing well-led services because:
- The culture of the practice and the way it was led and managed drove the delivery and improvement of high-quality, person-centred care.
- There was a focus of working with the local and wider community to foster, promote and deliver high quality effective integrated care.
We also rated the practice as good for providing safe, effective and caring 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. The practice monitored performance and implemented action to improve service delivery and effectiveness.
- Patients were treated patients with kindness, respect and compassion. Feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treated people.
We saw areas of outstanding practice including:
- The innovative use of electronic information systems to communicate effectively both within the practice teams, with external professionals and patients.
- The practice provided three on call GPs daily. This meant the practice had the capacity to meet patient demand for either a telephone consultation, a face to face visit or home visit.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Maintain a log of prescription paper allocated to each printer.
- Implement the planned review to improve exception reporting.
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