Didsbury Medical Centre

Updated 30 December 2022

Didsbury Medical Centre is based in the Didsbury area of Manchester.

645 Wilmslow Road

Didsbury

Manchester

M20 6BA

It is part of the NHS Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB) and has 16,059 patients.

The practice provides services under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract, with NHS England.

Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as level 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. Level 1 represents the highest levels of deprivation and level 10 the lowest.

Male and female life expectancy in the practice geographical area is 79.1 years for males and 81.5 years for females, both of which are similar to the England average of 79 years and 83 years respectively.

The numbers of patients in the different age groups on the GP practice register were generally similar to the average GP practice in England with more between the ages of 25 to 39.

The practice has a lower percentage (38%) of its population with a long-standing health condition than the England average (54%). The practice has a higher percentage (84%) of its population with a working status of being in paid work or in full-time education than the England average (62%). The practice has a lower percentage (1%) of its population with an unemployed status than the England average of (5.4%).

Services are provided from a converted house with disabled access and on street parking. The practice has a number of consulting and treatment rooms used by the GPs and nursing staff as well as visiting professionals such as health visitors.

The service has 4 GP partners, as well as a number of salaried GPs, 2 physician associates, 1 fully qualified nurse, as well as 2 trainee nurses and 2 health care assistants (HCAs). They are supported by a practice manager, assistant practice manager and various other non-clinical leaders. The team is further supported by an administration team including a number of reception and administrative staff.

The practice reception is open from 8am to 6:30pm Monday to Friday and appointments are available throughout that period.

The practice works in collaboration with Manchester Extended Access, who offers access to GP, nurse, and HCA appointments during the evenings and at the weekends.

Out of hours cover is accessed by contacting the NHS 111 service.

Updated 30 December 2022

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Didsbury Medical Centre on 10 & 14 November 2022. Overall, the practice is rated good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring – Not inspected

Responsive - Not inspected (we have reported some elements of this as part of a national initiative.

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 30 June 2016 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 Didsbury 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. This was a focused inspection that looked at the minimum requirement of the safe, effective and well-led key questions.

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 short 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:

• The practice had comprehensive systems in place that were working effectively and as intended to safeguard patients and staff from abuse and harm. They demonstrated that prescribing was in line with targets in all areas.
• The practice provided high-quality and effective care to patients, although there were some gaps, they were generally aware of areas where it needed to improve and had taken steps to proactively address these areas. The provider took immediate action to address the risks we identified during the inspection.
• The practice was able to demonstrate that governance arrangements were in place and effective. Leaders were visible and were engaged, allowing the practice to adapt to challenges quickly and provide support for staff and high-quality delivery of services.
• The practice was involved in a number of ongoing research projects at improving patient outcomes, the practice was in the process of collecting evidence to demonstrate this.

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

• Take steps to ensure that all DNACPR records are available for review and documented in line with guidance.
• Improve areas of low uptake in relation to childhood immunisations and cervical screening.
• Review patients highlighted in clinical searches to ensure all monitoring is complete.
• Document full clinical audits to demonstrate comprehensive quality improvement activity.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services