- GP practice
Church Lane Surgery
Assessment report published 10 August 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 22 July 2026
Church Lane Surgery is a GP practice and delivers services to 12,343 people under a contract held with NHS England. The main site is in the market town of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire and there is a branch practice at Main Street, Helperby, York, YO61 2NS. The surgery provides a dispensary service to those patients who are eligible and is a teaching practice for students from York Medical School.
According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 97.4% White, 0.9% Asian, 0.9% Mixed, 0.4% Black and 0.3% Other.
Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 9th decile (9 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.
REPONSIVE
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
Church Lane Surgery 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.
People's experience of this service
As part of our assessment, we reviewed feedback from people who used Church Lane Surgery to understand their views and experience of it.
In feedback to the CQC, there are no significant negative comments and no recurring concerns about the quality of care. Most patients described the practice as excellent, caring, responsive, and professional and the main themes identified in feedback related to: compassionate, caring, and kind staff; excellent clinical care; good access and responsiveness; professional and efficient service; strong praise for the nursing team; and positive interactions with the reception team.
The only negative comments made around routine appointments sometimes being "a long way ahead” and “staff occasionally appearing understaffed” were immediately balanced by statements that urgent appointments are usually found and patients remain satisfied with the service.
The positivity in feedback to the CQC was mirrored in the results of recent surveys, including the 2025 and 2026 National GP Patient Surveys and NHS Friends and Family feedback, which showed most people were satisfied with the surgery.
Healthwatch information from April 2025 to May 2026 was also reviewed and again did not show any concerning themes or trends. Healthwatch acts as a champion for people using health and social care services, and they receive information of concern through various channels. This includes direct feedback from individuals, reports from local Healthwatch organisations, and data gathered from engagement activities like surveys and focus groups.
Although the surgery did not have an active Patient Participation Group (PPG), we saw that they were still actively encouraging patients to join a PPG via their website, that they regularly shared updates about the surgery via social media, and that they had recently met with a local charitable organisation to discuss holding a joint community engagement event later in 2026.
We also received positive feedback from the local commissioning body regarding the provider.