The Pendle Medical Partnership Also known as Earby Surgery and Colne Family

Updated 7 October 2022

The Pendle Medical Partnership is located in Colne in Lancashire. The GP service is provided from two GP surgeries: Earby Surgery, Edward Street, Earby, Lancashire, BB18 6QT and from the branch surgery Colne Corner Surgery, Colne Health Centre, Craddock Road, Colne, Lancashire BB8 0JZ.

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

The practice is situated within the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). They deliver General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 15,100. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of five GP practices known as the Pendle East primary care network (PCN). They provide primary care services to 47,000 patients.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the middle decile (five 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 97.6% white, with 1.6% Asian and the remainder classified as other.

The age distribution of the practice population similar to the local and national averages, with slightly fewer children and young adults under the age of 18 and slightly more people over the age of 65 years.

There is a team of five GP partners and six salaried GPs who provide cover at both practices. The practice’s supporting clinical team includes eight practice nurses, one advanced nurse practitioner (ANP), one clinical pharmacist, one associated practitioner, two trainee associate practitioners and one health care assistant (HCA). The clinical teams are supported by a team of strategic and operational staff including one strategic manager, one operational manager, one assistant manager, one finance officer, four administrative staff and 17 reception staff. The staff groups work mainly in two teams, one team located at each GP surgery. However, staff do work across both locations if required to do so.

Both GP practices are opened Monday to Friday from 8am until 6.30pm and appointments are offered throughout each day at both locations. The practice offers a telephone triage service supported with a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by the East Lancs Alliance, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by East Lancs Medical Services (ELMS).

Updated 7 October 2022

We carried out an announced comprehensive at The Pendle Medical Partnership on 5 and 6 September 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Each key question is rated as follows:

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - good

Well-led - good

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities. This was the first inspection of this GP practice under this registered provider.

This inspection was a comprehensive rating inspection where we reviewed all five key questions; Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well led.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend less time on site. The GP practice offers services from two surgeries, one in Colne and one in Earby. Both surgeries were visited as part of this inspection.

Our inspection included

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing, as well as face to face.
• Reviewing feedback received by the CQC regarding the service.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system remotely; (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.
• Speaking with patients on the telephone the day after our 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 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.
• A continuous cycle of performance monitoring and improvement was established so patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• The practice recognised the different challenges vulnerable and older people faced and implemented strategies of monitoring and direct support to make sure these people received effective care, treatment and support quickly.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

We saw areas of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had a GP lead for mental health services and the service employed two mental health nurses. This enabled the practice to offer a quality service for those with complex mental health issues, adult attention deficit disorder and gender reassignment. One person we spoke with told of us of their experiences of help and support they received and how they were assisted to link with a social prescriber, which in turn was the catalyst for the establishment of a dementia café in Barnoldswick. A second dementia care café was planned to be opened Colne.
• Working in partnership and staff development was part the practice ethos and the staff employed by the service were supported with opportunities to train and develop along a career pathway. Staff had the autonomy and support to establish training programmes such as supporting student nurses with practice placements.

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

• Continue with the updating of safeguarding records to include all family members living within a household.
• Implement action to ensure sharp containers are signed and dated appropriately.
• Streamline the recording of emergency medicine stock check and expiry date.
• Seek ways to gather patient feedback.

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