• Doctor
  • GP practice

Ashton Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

120 Wigan Road, Ashton In Makerfield, Wigan, Lancashire, WN4 9SU (01942) 727325

Provided and run by:
SSP Health GPMS Ltd

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 9 July 2026.

Ashton Medical Centre is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 8,412 people under a contract held with NHS England.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 97.7% White, 0.8% Asian, 0.8% Mixed, 0.4% Black and 0.4% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 6th decile (6 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the service population is relative to others.

This was a focused assessment. We undertook this assessment due to the length of time since our last assessment. We assessed 10 quality statements from across all 5 key questions. This assessment considered the demographics of the people using the service, the context the service was working within and how this impacted service delivery. Where relevant, further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.

Staff kept facilities clean and maintained equipment appropriately to ensure people were kept safe. They assessed and managed the risk of infection well and took steps to control the risk of it spreading. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience.

Staff supported people to live healthier lives, monitoring their care and treatment to ensure they received positive and consistent outcomes.

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion, and respected their privacy and dignity.

People could access care, treatment and support when they needed it. Leaders and staff were alert to discrimination and inequality that could disadvantage groups of people who used the service and sought ways to address any barriers.

The service had a clear vision and strategy, which considered the needs of the people who used their service and the wider community. Staff understood their individual roles and responsibilities. Leaders accounted for the actions, behaviours and performance of staff through clear and effective governance processes.

26 September 2017

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Ashton Medical centre on 26 September 2017. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice had systems in place to obtain feedback from staff and patients.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and all further training needs had been identified and planned.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment and that there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
  • Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, reviewed and addressed and there was a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • The practice was part of the SSP Health group of practices and provided flexible staff working across different SSP locations.

We saw two areas of outstanding practice :

  • The practice identified a high number of patients in residential and nursing homes requiring home visits. To reduce the impact on clinical time an acute visiting service was introduced. Following consultation with 12 neighbouring practices it was ascertained that they would also benefit from this service and a business case was submitted to the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to introduce a community acute visiting services. This was approved and commenced in March 2017 and a re-audit in September 2017 confirmed that home visit demand had reduced because of this service.
  • The practice implemented and developed a Childhood Initiative Scheme for parents, expectant parents, guardians and grandparents. The sessions included professional advice and support on how best to deal with common minor illnesses such as coughs and colds, fever and febrile convulsions. In addition Basic Life Support training was delivered. The practice was able to evidence that this service reduced attendance at accident and emergency, hospital admissions and inappropriate requests for GP appointments. Feedback from the first year’s appraisal identified where improvements could be made and the sessions now included meningitis awareness, help and advice about routine emergency conditions and one-to-ones at the end of each session. Collaboration has taken place with the CCG who plan to link the practice with Sure Start in order to share the learning more widely across the Wigan Borough.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice