Archived: Preston Medics Limited

Updated 24 October 2014

PPCC provides an out-of-hours (OOH) General Practitioner (GP) service for around 250,000 people living within the Preston and Fylde and Wyre area. The service is provided from the primary care centre based adjacent to the NHS A&E department at The Royal Preston Hospital (RPH).

The service operates whenever GP surgeries are closed. This is weekdays between 18:30hrs and 08:00hrs and 24 hours a day at weekends and public holidays.

Patients are redirected to the service via their GP practice answering service or via the A&E diversion process from RPH A&E department. The service also offers adhoc walk in assistance but these patients are subject to longer waits for treatment during busy periods within the centre.

PPCC statistics suggest they can successfully divert and treat 40% of all patients presenting at RPH A&E with minor ailments.

Preston is deemed to be the 59th most deprived area of 326 local authorities and has a 19.9% population from non-white minority groups which is higher than the national average. The Preston area has an estimated 5900 children living in poverty and the life expectancy for both male and females are significantly below the national average. Areas of concern in the local area include lung cancer, digestive disease, and respiratory disease alongside other cancer concerns. In the surrounding area there is a significantly higher rate of ‘all deaths’ occurring in hospital in comparison with the national average. The Preston area is a nationally recognised outlier for drug and alcohol abuse and is currently working with NHS England to address this issue with additional services.

PPCC currently has 59 GPs working a variety of hours across the operating hours of the service supported by two full time and 13 part time nurses alongside a management / administration team.

PPCC work closely with the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) to offer advice on non-serious care matters and provide home visits to patients assessed by NWAS to require this service. PPCC also operate a seven day Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) clinic to assist patients with early diagnosis and management of their condition. This service included point of care testing and management of the medication required for their treatment.

Updated 24 October 2014

Preston Primary Care Centre Limited (PPCC) is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to provide ‘Out-of-hours’ (OOH) services. Patients are referred to PPCC via the GP practices answering service which gives the phone number for the service to their patients. Alternatively it is accessed via an A&E diversion process that is in place with Royal Preston Hospital, whereby patients attending A&E who could be appropriately managed by a GP service are transferred to PPCC for their care needs.

PPCC are registered to deliver the following activities; family planning, treatment for disease, disorder and injury, diagnostic and screening services and transport services, triage and medical advice.

There are effective systems in place to ensure the service could be delivered to the widest range of patients with varying levels of need. There is good collaborative working between the provider and other healthcare and social care agencies which ensure patients receive the best outcomes in the shortest possible time.

The staff are caring, responsive to the needs of patients and considered care and treatment in line with best practice guidelines.

There are some areas for improvement including: reviewing policies on a regular basis, reviewing systems for monitoring expiry dates of drugs and emergency equipment in an auditable manner. Risk assessments for drugs stored in the emergency cars used by GPs for home visits are needed, recording of serial numbers on blank prescription sheets once allocated to GPs and to formalise clinical supervision sessions for all nurses.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.