The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

West End Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

98-102 Stockport Road, Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, OL7 0LH (0161) 339 5488

Provided and run by:
West End Medical Centre

All Inspections

10/07/2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West End Medical Centre on the 10 July 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good .

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive – requires improvement

Well-led – good

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this full comprehensive inspection to follow up concerns reported to us.

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.
  • information from the provider, patients and other organisations.

We found that:

  • Staff had received appropriate training and there were effective health and safety risk assessments.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • Patients satisfaction with accessing the service by phone was lower than the national average.
  • The provider had developed a clear vision and was working to embed theses values across the staff team

Whilst we did not find any breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Take action to improve the consistency in the management of medicine reviews.
  • Take steps to implement quality improvement activities such as clinical audits and re-audits to monitor the effectiveness of clinical care and improve patient outcomes.
  • Continue to monitor and improve cervical screening rates.
  • Continue to monitor and improve childhood immunisation rates.
  • Take action to develop an effective approach in seeking and acting on feedback from patients in relation to accessing the service and overall quality of care.
  • Ensure all staff know who the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian is.

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

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care

28 June 2018

During a routine inspection

This practice is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection April 2015 – Good)

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

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West End Medical Centre on 28 June 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

  • The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
  • The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
  • 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.
  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

21 April 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of West End Medical Centre on 21 April 2015. We found that the practice was rated as good overall.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice is rated as good for safe. Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, and report incidents and near misses. Lessons were learned and communicated widely to support improvement. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed. There were enough staff to keep people safe.
  • The practice is rated as good for effective. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance was referenced and used routinely. Patient’s needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation. This included the promotion of good health. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and further training needs were identified and planned. The practice had an effective appraisal system in place for all staff. Multidisciplinary working was evidenced.
  • The practice is rated as good for caring. Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in care and treatment decisions. Accessible information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them. We also saw that staff treated patients with kindness and respect ensuring confidentiality was maintained.
  • The practice is rated as good for responsive. The practice reviewed the needs of their local population and engaged with NHS England and the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to secure service improvements where these were identified. Patients reported good access to the practice and the GPs and continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day. The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. There was an accessible complaints system with evidence demonstrating that the practice responded quickly to issues raised.
  • The practice is rated as good for well-led. The practice had a clear vision and strategy to deliver this. There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice had a number of policies and procedures to govern activity. There were systems in place to monitor and improve quality and identify risk. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients and this had been acted upon. Staff had received inductions, regular appraisals and attended staff meetings. The practice had a developing patient participation group (PPG).

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

  • The practice runs a scheme known as the “Difficult Patient Scheme” that includes some vulnerable adults who are given priority appointments due to their complex needs.
  • The practice has an over 75’s wellbeing service to support patients with aspects of their daily life.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. Importantly the provider should:

  • Ensure that staff receive training and development for managing the cold chain process.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice