Archived: Arnside Medical Practice

Updated 9 April 2018

Arnside Medical Centre is located in the village of Arnside in Cumbria and is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services to patients living in the town and surrounding rural areas.

The practice provides services to around 2,300 patients on a General Medical Services contract from two sites:

• Arnside Medical Practice, Orchard Road, Arnside, LA5 0PD

• Silverdale Surgery, 20A Emesgate Lane, Silverdale, LA5 0RA.

We visited both of these sites during this inspection.

Since October 2014, Arnside Medical Practice has been operated by Ash Trees Surgery in Carnforth. However, patients who are registered at Arnside Surgery can currently only access services at Arnside and its branch surgery at Silverdale as they are on a separate patient list from patients registered at Ash Trees Surgery. Likewise, patients registered at Ash Trees Surgery cannot currently attend services at Arnside. At the time of inspection the management at the practice were in talks with NHS England and patients at the surgeries with a view to merging the lists.

The practice at Arnside is located in a purpose-built surgery, constructed in the 1980s, while the branch at Silverdale is in a converted house. All patient facilities at both sites are situated on the ground floor. There is wheelchair and step-free access at both sites, and some patient car parking spaces are available at Arnside.

While staff within the Ash Trees Surgery group can work at all sites, there are three GPs (two female, one male) who are mostly based at Arnside, along with three practice nurses, a health care assistant, a phlebotomist and two receptionists and cleaning staff. The practice pharmacist visits five days a week. At Ash Trees surgery there is practice manager, an assistant practice manager, and a team of administrative staff (including a medical secretary) who oversee the operation of the practice.

Opening times at the Arnside practice are 8am to 6pm from Monday to Friday. The Silverdale practice is open from 8am to 12pm on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Both sites are closed at the weekend. Outside of these times, a pre-recorded message directs patients to 999 emergency services, NHS 111 or out-of-hours providers, as appropriate.

The practice is part of Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Information taken from Public Health England places the area in which the practice is located in the least deprived decile. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services. The service for patients requiring urgent medical attention out-of-hours is provided by Cumbria Health On Call Limited (CHOC) and the NHS 111 service.

Updated 9 April 2018

This practice is rated as good overall.

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

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Arnside Medical Practice on 9 February 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.

We saw an example of outstanding practice:

• A “Listening Service” was established by the provider at Ash Trees Surgery, and this had been extended to Arnside Surgery at the request of their patients. The Listening Service was a free, confidential service facilitated by a volunteer chaplain listener on a weekly basis. Patients we spoke to at the practice told us this service was highly valued.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Put in place a checklist of medicines to be included on the emergency trolley;

• Undertake appraisals with all members of staff;

• Undertake appropriate risk assessments for staff who may not require a disclosure and barring service (DBS) check, and ensure that only staff who have had a DBS check act as chaperones.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice