• Doctor
  • GP practice

Valentine Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

2 Smethurst Street, Blackley, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M9 8PP (0161) 241 5480

Provided and run by:
Valentine Medical Centre

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Valentine Medical Centre is a GP practice and delivers service to 10,785 patients under a contract held with NHS England.

The National General Practice Profiles states that the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 61.4% white, 11.3% Asian, 19.6% black, 3.1% other non-white ethnic groups, 4.6% mixed.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (1 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. 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: Valentine Medical Centre had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Management investigated incidents thoroughly. People were protected and kept safe. Staff understood and managed risks. The facilities and equipment met the needs of people, were clean and well-maintained and any risks mitigated. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Managers made sure staff received training and regular appraisals to maintain high-quality care. Staff managed medicines well and involved people in planning any changes.

EFFECTIVE: People using Valentine Medical Centre were involved in assessments of their needs. Staff reviewed assessments taking account of people’s communication, personal and health needs. Care was based on latest evidence and good practice. Staff worked with all agencies involved in people’s care for the best outcomes and smooth transitions when moving services. Staff made sure people understood their care and treatment to enable them to give informed consent. Staff involved those important to people and took decisions in people’s best interests where they did not have capacity.

CARING: People were treated with kindness and compassion. Staff protected their privacy and dignity. They treated them as individuals and supported their preferences. People had choice in their care and treatment. The service supported staff wellbeing.

 

RESPONSIVE: People were involved in decisions about their care. The service provided information people could understand. People knew how to give feedback and were confident the service took it seriously and acted on it. The service was easy to access and worked to eliminate discrimination. People received fair and equal care and treatment. The service worked to reduce health and care inequalities through training and feedback. People were involved in planning their care and understood options around choosing to withdraw or not receive care.

 

 

WELL-LED: Leaders and staff had a shared vision and culture based on listening, learning and trust. Leaders were visible, knowledgeable and supportive, helping staff develop in their roles. Staff felt supported to give feedback and were treated equally, free from bullying or harassment. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Managers worked with the local community to deliver the best possible care and were receptive to new ideas. There was a culture of continuous improvement with staff given time and resources to try new ideas.

23 November 2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Valentine Medical Centre on 23 November 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe – good

Effective - good

Caring - Not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection

Responsive – requires improvement

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 24 November 2015 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Valentine Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A short 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 found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

  • Continue with steps taken to improve the patient experience of accessing the practice by telephone and their satisfaction levels with appointment access.
  • Continue efforts to improve uptake for childhood immunisations.
  • Continue to improve uptake for cervical cytology cancer screening.
  • Take action to ensure all medication reviews are appropriately recorded on the patient record.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care

24 November 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Valentine Medical Centre on 24 November 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

  • The practice had a clinical lead structure in place which supported their patients and staff in areas of: safeguarding, medicines management, learning disabilities, human resources (HR), quality and financial.
  • There was a strong and clear leadership structure and staff felt extremely supported by management team.
  • Patient services were identified and implemented on site, one example was the practice offered an outreach service for patients with the local citizen’s advice.
  • The practice had clean and good facilities, which were well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs with patient access to both ground and first levels via lift.
  • There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

We saw a couple of areas of outstanding practice:

The medicine management lead and team were very proactive to ensure patient’s received the correct medication and checks. We saw evidence of the prescription manager working daily with all GPs, thoroughly checking each prescription from discharge letters to ensure they were actioned immediately. The lead GP had a repeat prescribing system in place and we saw evidence of a recent presentation referring to a recent prescribing review audit. This highlighted clear responsibilities of clinical staff and each process of the review.

The practice had a mission statement which all staff were very positive about, each member we spoke told us they felt involved in making the statement and this was a true reflection of the practice. This was evidenced by the staff annual away days where the mission statement was made up on a T-Shirt for each staff to wear, this was in 2012.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice