The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Pringle Street Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

216-218 Pringle Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB1 1SB (01254) 360105

Provided and run by:
Pringle Street Surgery

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment: 3 July 2026. Pringle Street Surgery is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 2715 people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 64% Asian, 31% White, 2% Mixed, 1% Black and 2% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the first decile (1 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.

SAFE - 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.

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

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

RESPONSIVE - 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.

WELL-LED - 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.

24 January 2018

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This practice 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

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students) – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Pringle Street Surgery on 24 January 2018. This was the practice’s first inspection and was carried out as part of our commitment to inspecting and rating all GP practices in England.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines and reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided.

  • The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice documented investigations resulting from them and improved their processes.

  • Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

  • Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.

  • The practice demonstrated awareness of the specific cultural needs of its patient population.

  • Staff felt respected, valued and supported and were able to give us examples of how the practice had listened and acted on their feedback.

  • The practice engaged positively with integrated working alongside other professionals. Regular multidisciplinary team meetings took place to ensure person-centred care was delivered to patients.

  • Quality improvement issues were discussed in regular staff meetings. Clinical matters were discussed in monthly meetings.

  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. The practice showed us how it engaged in local pilot schemes and could demonstrate how it had improved patient outcomes, for example by improving the uptake of cervical smear screening.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice engaged with other healthcare professionals to facilitate improved care for its patients. For example it worked with an ‘Achieving Self Care’ facilitator who was employed by a local hospital trust and attended the surgery once per week on a Tuesday to support patients who experienced mild – moderate mental health difficulties. Since November 2016 the practice had referred 59 patients to this service, with 38 of these benefitting from improved mental wellbeing as measured by the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (a tool for measuring a person’s mental wellbeing).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Clinical oversight of the management of incoming correspondence should be sufficient to ensure the system is working safely and effectively.

  • Staff should be aware of policy and procedure documents relating to the work they undertake. These documents should be sufficiently detailed to describe the activity being carried out.

  • Complete mitigating actions in line with documented risk assessments, for example in relation to legionella.

  • The complaints procedure should be readily available to patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice