Sandy Lane Surgery

Updated 24 May 2022

Sandy Lane Surgery is situated on Sandy Lane in the Leyland area of Preston at PR25 2EB serving a mainly urban population.

The building is a purpose-built health centre which has been extended over the years. It consists of two floors and all patient facilities are located on the ground floor. The practice provides level access for patients to the building with disabled facilities available and part of the reception desk has been lowered to facilitate wheelchair access.

There is limited parking provided for patients in the practice car park and the practice is close to public transport.

The practice is part of the Chorley with South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and services are provided under a General Medical Services Contract (GMS) with NHS England.

The provider is a single-handed female GP supported by four female and one male salaried GPs; assisted by two Advanced Nursing Practitioners (ANPs), five Practice Nurses (RPNs) and three Healthcare Assistants (HCAs). The rest of the team consists of a practice manager, deputy practice manager, two office supervisors, a patient support lead and 18 additional administrative and reception staff. The practice also employs two pharmacists and is able to use the services of a number of other healthcare professionals that are employed by the PCN and local CCG for additional support.

The practice is a teaching practice for GPs in training.

The practice is open from Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and extended hours are offered on some Saturdays from 8.30am to 1.30pm for pre-booked appointments. Appointments are offered from 8am to 10.50am and from 1.30pm to 5.50pm on weekdays and from 8.30am to 1.20pm on Saturdays. Extended hours are offered some weekday evenings from 6.30pm to 8pm and some Saturdays through the practice membership in the local Primary Care Network (PCN); Leyland Collaborative.

When the practice is closed, patients are able to access out of hours services offered locally by the provider GoToDoc or NHS 111.

The practice provides services to 11,268 patients. Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as six on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Life expectancy for females is 84 years and 80 years for males.

The practice is 97.7% white and 2.3% non-white ethnic groups.

Updated 24 May 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Sandy Lane Surgery on 6 & 8 April 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good. We inspected;

Safe -Good

Effective -Good

Caring – Good

Responsive – Requires Improvement

Well-led -Good

The previous provider of this service was inspected on 1 November 2016 and was rated good overall and for all key questions, except for well-led, which was rated outstanding. A new provider was registered in October 2020 and the previous report and provider profile was archived in November 2020.

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a fully comprehensive inspection to give a rating to the new provider of the service.

We undertook this inspection at the same time as CQC inspected a range of urgent and emergency care services in Lancashire and South Cumbria. To understand the experience of GP Providers and people who use GP services, we asked a range of questions in relation to urgent and emergency care. The responses we received have been used to inform and support system wide feedback.

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 included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing and face to face
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting and reviewing evidence from the provider
• A 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 have rated this practice as Good overall

We found that:

• The practice demonstrated that systems and processes were in place to protect patients and staff from harm in all areas of service delivery. There were areas that the practice acknowledged would benefit from strengthening and they took action immediately to address these areas.
• Effective staffing arrangements were in place and patients with long-term conditions and all other clinical areas received care and treatment in line with best practice.
• Patient feedback in relation to being treated with kindness, respect and dignity, as well as being involved in their care and treatment was in line with local and national averages. In addition, the practice had proactively surveyed their patients as a result of feedback to seek out areas for improvement.
• Feedback was variable in relation to access to care and treatment however; the practice had surveyed patients to seek out areas to improve and were engaging with patients about the new ways of working in primary care. Actions to improve patient satisfaction around access to the service had not yet been implemented.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to follow government guidance to mitigate the risk of this virus.
• Governance arrangements were in place and working to facilitate the services offered to the practice population. They demonstrated that these systems and processes were embedded and able to adapt to challenges; supporting the practice to be responsive to quality improvement activity and provide an environment for the beginnings of innovation.

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

• Establish a formal system of oversight for all allied health professionals working in the practice including non-medical prescribers.
• Complete actions for all risk assessments or audits in relation to environmental risks, including infection prevention and control.
• Bring cervical uptake to expected targets.
• Take action to improve patient satisfaction with access to care and treatment.

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