The Care Quality Commission
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  • GP practice

Bowland Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

52 Bowland Road, Baguley, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M23 1JX (0161) 998 2014

Provided and run by:
Bowland Medical Practice

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of Assessment 22 May 2026. Bowland Medical Practice is a GP practice and delivers services to approximately 8,065 people under a contract held with NHS England. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the service area is approximately 77.4% White, 7.8% Asian, 4.7% Mixed, 7.3% Black and 2.8% Other. Information published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows deprivation within the service population group is in the 2nd decile (2 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. We found the premises to be safe with appropriate risk assessments in place.

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.

5 October 2017

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bowland Medical Practice on 16 July 2015. The overall rating for the practice was good, with a requires improvement rating for the key question of safe and we issued requirement notices for breaches of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (Safe care and treatment) and Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (Fit and proper persons employed). The full comprehensive report on the July 2015 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bowland Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 5 October 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches identified in the requirement notices.

Overall the practice is now rated as good, with the previous rating of requires improvement for the key question of safe updated to a rating of good.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice was able to demonstrate that a risk assessment relating to legionella had been completed .

  • All non-clinical staff who carried out chaperone duties had DBS checks in place, and the practice’s recruitment policy had been updated to reflect this was part of its recruitment procedure (DBS checks identify whether a person has a criminal record or is on an official list of people barred from working in roles where they may have contact with children or adults who may be vulnerable).

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

16 July 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

Bowland Medical Practice was inspected on 16 July 2015. This was a comprehensive inspection. This means we reviewed the provider in relation to the five key questions leading to a rating on each on a four point rating scale. We rated the practice as good in respect of being effective, caring, responsive and well-led and requiring improvement in relation to being safe.

Our key findings were as follows:

The practice has systems in place for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events. Significant incidents and events are used as an opportunity for learning and improving the safety of patients, staff and other visitors to the practice.

The practice has systems in place to ensure best practice is followed. This is to ensure that people’s care, treatment and support achieves good outcomes and is based on the best available evidence.

Information we received from patients reflected that practice staff interacted with them in a positive and empathetic way. They told us that they were treated with respect, always in a polite manner and as an individual.

The practice reviewed the needs of its local population and engaged with NHS England and South Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to secure improvements to services where these were identified. The practice had taken action to address the concerns of some patients in respect of accessing timely appointments at the practice.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

The practice had designed and introduced a template to ensure patients with a learning disability received regular review and effective care and treatment. This has been so successful it has been adapted by other practices within the South Manchester CCG area. At the time of our visit the practice was in the process of developing a similar template for patients with dementia. These developments demonstrated effective care of chronic diseases and vulnerable people. It also evidenced the practice was proactively sharing learning with colleagues outside the practice.

The practice had achieved the ‘Pride in practice gold award’ to celebrate delivering an excellent service to all patients. Pride in Practice is a quality assurance support service provided by The Lesbian & Gay Foundation to GP practices to support improvements in health outcomes for their lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) patients, as well as strengthen their engagement with, and understanding of LGB people.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider must:

Take action to ensure the effective operation of systems designed to assess the risk of and to prevent, detect and control the spread of health care associated infection. There was no evidence that a risk assessment had been carried out in respect of the potential risk from legionella contamination. Legionella is a germ found in the environment which can contaminate water systems in buildings.

Improve the system of staff recruitment to ensure that patients are protected by operating effective recruitment and selection procedures that includes ensuring relevant Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are carried out (and evidenced) when staff are employed or are engaged in a role where such checks are required.

In addition the provider should:

Review and update the complaints procedure to provide complainants with the contact details of the parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO) if they are dissatisfied with the practice’s response to their complaint. Also reference to the Healthcare Commission should be removed from the practice information booklet (suggestions/complaints section) as this organisation no longer exists.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice