Glodwick Medical Practice

Updated 9 June 2022

Sunvalley Medical Practice provides primary care services to its registered list of approximately 5239 patients. The practice delivers commissioned services under the general medical services (GMS) contract and is a member of NHS Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The GMS contract is the contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities. The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures, and treatment of disease, disorder and injury.

The practice is part of part of Hope Citadel Healthcare Community Interest Company, and benefits from support from the leadership and governance teams. The practice has access to support and leadership from a clinical team as well as access to human resources, auditing and finance teams.

Regulated activities are delivered to the patient population from the following address:

137 Glodwick Road

Oldham

OL4 1YN

0161 357 2020

The practice has a website that contains information about what they do to support their patient population and the in house and online services offered:

https://sunvalleymedicalpractice.org.uk

The practice has locum GPs, including long-term locum GPs. They are supported by lead GPs from the provider who meet with them regularly and also attend the practice. There are two advanced nurse practitioners, two practice nurses and two healthcare assistants. There is a practice manager and several administrative and reception staff.

The practice works closely with another GP practice in the same building which is also a part of Hope Citadel Healthcare Community Interest Company .

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (one 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 48% White, 47% Asian, 2% Black and 3% Other.

The practice is a multi-cultural practice with a high number of patients who do not speak English as a first language.

Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the surgery and they will be directed to the local out of hours through NHS 111.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone or online consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered an appointment at the practice.

Updated 9 June 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Sunvalley Medical Practice on 8 April 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good with the following key question ratings:

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Outstanding

Why we carried out this inspection

This was a full comprehensive inspection due to a new provider taking over the registration of the practice.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection included:

• A site visit by the lead inspector.
• Conducting staff interviews remotely and on site.
• Completing clinical searches remotely on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider.
• Reviewing patient records remotely to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• Gaining feedback from staff by using staff questionnaires.

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.

Our findings

We have rated this practice as good overall.

We rated the practice as good for providing safe services because:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.

We rated the practice as good for providing effective services because:

• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.

We rated the practice as good for providing caring services because:

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

We rated the practice as good for providing responsive services because:

• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

We rated the practice as outstanding for providing well led services because:

• The provider had carried out an analysis of the local area and population and had a good understanding of the challenges faced in their area.
• There was a strategy in place to continue to improve the delivery of high-quality care and treatment at practice and provider level and the whole team was involved strategy discussions.
• Governance and performance management arrangements were reviewed regularly and all staff, including temporary staff, had access to all the information they required to carry out their duties.
• The leadership, governance and culture were used to drive and improve the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.
• Feedback from staff was consistently positive. Staff felt able to raise concerns and we saw examples of this happening. Staff felt empowered to drive improvement and they had the support of the leadership team when doing this.
• There were high levels of staff engagement at all levels within the organisation. The provider also ensured informal engagement was offered and they had continued this during the pandemic, finding ways to do this safely and within the guidance.
• Staff were valued within the organisation and given the opportunity to develop and progress professional both in clinical and non-clinical roles.

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

• Improve childhood immunisations in line with WHO targets.
• Improve the level of cervical screening.

We found areas of outstanding practice:

• Bereavement support, for patients, families and staff, was exceptional. The advanced nurse practitioner team worked with patients, families and care homes to help patients with their end of life wishes, and they arranged for memory boxes to be made for relatives.
• The practice initiated substantial outreach work in the community during the pandemic. Senior clinicians from the practice visited local shop owners to educate them about Covid 19 prevention methods and encourage them to hand out information to their customers. They also went door to door in the areas with high Covid 19 prevalence to give information to their patients and other residents.

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

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care