OWLS West Lancashire GP Federation

Updated 29 May 2019

The provider, OWLS West Lancashire GP Federation is a healthcare federation created by an amalgamation of fifteen GP practices. The service was formed in 2017 when the provider, a GP membership community interest company previously registered to provide out of hours services in West Lancashire, transitioned to a federation. The service operates under a contract with the West Lancashire clinical commissioning group (CCG) and provides healthcare services to all residents in the CCG (sixteen GP practices); approximately 115,000 people.

The service headquarters is located in a GP practice premises in the Matthew Ryder Clinic at 20, Dingle Road, Upholland, Skelmersdale, Lancashire, WN8 0EN.

The service provides patient appointments to support primary care services by enabling patients to obtain a pre-booked appointment outside of their own practice’s core opening hours. Appointments can be booked through a patient’s own GP practice or the NHS 111 service and are available seven days a week, between 6.30pm to 8pm Monday to Friday, and 10am to 2pm on Saturday and 10am to 1pm on Sunday. The service does not accommodate walk-in patients.

Surgery sessions are run from five GP practice sites on a rota basis. These sites are in Ormskirk at the Ormskirk Medical Practice,18, Derby Street, L39 2BY, Skelmersdale at the service headquarters, the Sandy Lane Health Centre at WN8 8LA, the Birleywood Health Centre in Birleywood, WN8 9BW and the Burscough Family Practice, Burscough Health Centre, Stanley Court, Lord Street, Burscough, L40 4LA. For this inspection we visited the provider headquarters and the Burscough Health Centre service during the operation of the evening surgery.

The service weekday surgeries operate using either advanced nurse practitioners or GPs to offer patient appointments, and weekend surgeries are staffed by a team of GPs, advanced nurse practitioners, practice nurses and healthcare assistants. Receptionists offer support to these surgeries during their operation. A team of managers and administrative staff also supports the service.

GPs are generally sourced from local practices. The service comprises of a team of 12 regular active local GPs, three of whom are also service clinical directors, three advanced nurse practitioners, three practice nurses and five healthcare assistants supported by five service managers and six reception and administrative staff.

The provider also holds service agreements to act as a pilot service for patient social prescribing and an enhanced nursing home scheme operated through GP practices. This report covers the provision of the extended access service only.

The provider is registered to provide two regulated activities; diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Updated 29 May 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at OWLS West Lancashire GP Federation on 25 April 2019. This was the first inspection of this extended hours service. Our inspection included a visit to the service’s headquarters and to one of the locations where the service operated.

At this inspection we found:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• There was a strong focus on quality improvement. Audit was meaningful and informed by service outcomes.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs. Patient feedback on the service was consistently positive.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. Integration with GP practices was central to the organisation aims and values.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care