Barrow and Millom PCN Area

Updated 12 October 2022

Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative Limited (the registered provider) was formed in October 2019 and first registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2020. The organisation became a Community Interest Company in July 2022 and provides regulated activities to the population of Morecambe Bay.

The area covered includes North Lancashire (with the City of Lancaster, Morecambe and Carnforth), through to South Cumbria (from Bentham in the East on the edge of Yorkshire, to the large town of Kendal to the North) and across the Lake District and on to the Furness Peninsula. This area covers over 1,000 square miles with a population of approximately 350,000 citizens.

The provider’s stated vision is to enable general practice across Morecambe Bay to thrive, supporting them to provide excellent healthcare; directly or through Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative Limited, so local people live healthy, fulfilling lives to their potential. It has three aims; To support general practice within North Lancashire and South Cumbria, act as an interface for primary medical care and the rest of the health and social care system and to provide high quality, at scale services, both clinical and non-clinical.

The provider has one registered location called ‘Barrow and Millom PCN Area’ from which it provides regulated activities. Barrow and Millom PCN Area is registered at the head office address of NHS Moor Lane Mills, Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1QD. The provider is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

At the time of our inspection the provider delivered a home visiting service for 10 GP practices within the Barrow and Millom Primary Care Network, staffed by a small team of paramedics; a Cytosponge diagnostic pilot service (Cytosponge is a minimally invasive way to perform a preliminary oesophageal cell collection) and an Extended Access Service providing evening and weekend appointments from seven host sites across South Cumbria and North Lancashire.

Appointments for the extended access service can be booked through the receptionist at the patients’ local GP practice, where a time and location will be provided. The extended access service operates out of seven local community hubs between the hours of 6:30pm to 8pm on weekdays and at weekends between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Timings occasionally differ, for example during bank holidays.

Regulated activities for the extended access service are delivered to the patient population from the following seven addresses:

• Alfred Barrow Health Centre, Duke Street, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, LA14 2L
• Morecambe Health Centre, Hanover St, Morecambe LA4 5LY
• Nutwood Surgery, Kents Bank Road, Grange-over-Sands LA11 7DJ
• Station House Surgery, Station Rd, Kendal LA9 6SA
• Ash Trees Surgery, Market Street, Carnforth, LA5 9JU
• Ulverston Health Centre, Stanley Street, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7BT
• Norwood Medical Centre, 99 Abbey Rd, Barrow-in-Furness LA14 5ES

The provider has a website that contains information about the organisation and what they do to support local GP practices and patients. Please see: https://mbpcc.co.uk/.

Updated 12 October 2022

This practice is rated as Good overall. This was the first inspection of Barrow and Millom PCN area since the service was registered in July 2020.

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 Barrow and Millom PCN Area on 8 September 2022 as part of our inspection programme as the service had not been inspected or rated.

At this inspection we found:

• Leaders prepared well and engaged positively in the inspection process. They responded quickly to inspection findings in response to initial feedback with a “lessons learned” document and evidence of actions taken.
• The provider had established clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management and there was oversight of quality and performance, finance, strategy and risk through a board of directors.
• Clinical audits were routinely undertaken for all staff involved in clinical activity that was overseen by the medical director.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. Leaders were clear on areas that required improvement activity and were working to address these.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Patient feedback regarding clinical staff and service satisfaction levels were very positive. There were systems in place to respond to concerns and complaints.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Obtain outstanding evidence and maintain up-to-date records of all mandatory training modules for staff working in the extended access service.
• Embed into practice the new induction programmes and three stage site visit audit process to maintain assurance that premises used by the extended access services are safe and appropriately equipped.
• Review and update the concerns and incident logs to ensure sufficient information is documented to provide a clear audit trail of actions taken.
• Develop a policy on the Accessible Information Standards.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services