Longton Medical Centre

Updated 9 February 2024

Longton Medical Centre is located in Rainhill at:

451 Warrington Road,

Rainhill,

Prescot

Merseyside

L35 4LL

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the regulated activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice is situated within Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population to approximately 5,748 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Locally, the practice is part of a wider network of 13 GP practices called a primary care network (PCN) in the St Helens South Primary Care Network.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fifth lowest decile (5 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 96.4% White, 2.3% Asian, Mixed 0.9%, 0.2% Black and 0.2% Other. The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are approximately 2,943 female patients and 2,805 male patients registered at the practice. Life expectancy for females is 82.3 years and 78.6 years for males.

There is a team of 1 male and 2 female GP partners and 1 male salaried GP who provide cover at the practice. Additionally, the practice employs 1 part-time health care assistant and 1 part-time locum practice nurse. There was a vacancy for one full-time practice nurse at the time of our inspection.

The clinical team is supported by a practice management team that consists of 1 practice manager, 1 office manager and 4 receptionists.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, pre-bookable appointments, face to face, video and telephone consultations and online bookings.

Extended access appointments are available via the PCN from 6.30pm to 9pm Monday to Friday and Saturdays from 9am to 5pm. Early morning appointments are also available from 7am on a Tuesday Morning for GP clinics.

Out of hours services are provided locally by the St Helens Rota GP Federation.

The surgery is an approved training practice for the training of General Practice Registrars (GPRs) and had two male GP trainee doctors at the time of our inspection.

Updated 9 February 2024

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Longton Medical Centre on 6 December 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

The key question ratings are as follows:

Safe – Good

Effective – Requires Improvement

Caring – Good

Responsive – Good

Well-led – Good

Following our previous inspection on 7 October 2015, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Longton 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 inspected all of the key questions as part of this inspection.

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:

We rated the provider as good for providing safe services. This was because:

• The practice had clear systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• Staff had the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment.

We rated the provider as requires improvement for providing effective services. This was because:

• Patients with long-term conditions were not always receiving appropriate monitoring or reviews.
• The practice was not meeting all the targets for childhood immunisations and cervical screening uptake for eligible patients.

We rated the provider as good for providing caring services. This was because:

• Staff treated patients with patients with kindness and respect.
• The practice respected patient’s privacy and dignity.

We rated the provider as good for providing responsive services. This was because:

• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patient’s needs.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

We rated the provider as good for providing well-led services. This was because:

• There was compassionate and inclusive leadership at all levels.
• There was evidence of systems and processes for learning, continuous improvement and innovation.

We found one breach of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

We also found areas where the practice could improve. The provider should:

• Progress plans to recruit a practice nurse.

• Take action to improve the uptake of childhood immunisations and cervical cancer screening.

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 Health Care