The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Dr Heath Prescot Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Sewell Street, Prescot, Merseyside, L34 1ND (0151) 426 5277

Provided and run by:
Dr Heath Prescot Medical Centre

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Dr Heath, Prescot Medical Centre is a NHS GP practice which provides primary care services to patients in Knowsley. We carried out an announced assessment of one quality statement, equity of access, under the key question Responsive at Dr Heath, Prescot Medical Centre on the 12 February 2024. We carried out the assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet peoples demands for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers. We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know staff are carrying this out whilst the demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. However, in this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. The assessment of the quality statement equity of access includes looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement. Overall, the practice is rated as good and the key question responsive continues to be rated as providing a good service. We found that the practice had organised services to meet patients’ needs, particularly those who were most likely to have difficulty accessing care. The practice used feedback and other information to monitor and improve access.

12 August 2021

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced inspection at Dr Heath Prescot Medical Centre on 11 and 12 August 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 29 November 2019 the practice was rated Requires Improvement overall and for providing safe and responsive services. Effective, caring and well-led key questions were rated Good.

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

Why we carried out this inspection.

This inspection was a comprehensive follow-up and included a site visit.

Key questions inspected were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

Areas followed up included any breaches of regulations or ‘shoulds’ identified previously.

At the previous inspection in November 2021 we found:

  • The practice did not have robust system in place to learn and make improvements when things went wrong.
  • The practice did not have systems in place to keep medicine prescriptions safe and secure.
  • The practice did not have systems in place to keep all personal information secure.
  • Processes for receiving and dealing with complaints were not robust.

We found all previous breaches in regulations had been addressed.

We found improvements in all previous areas of concern as the practice had also reviewed and taken action to address the ‘shoulds’ identified at the previous inspection.

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Sending all staff a questionnaire which they could complete and return prior to and during the inspection period.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider on 11 August 2021.
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider .
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A short site visit.
  • Requesting the provider use their patient contact platform to inform them about the inspection and asking them to complete a Healthwatch/ CQC web-based questionnaire.
  • Phone call to members of the Patient Participation Group.

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 have rated this practice as Good overall and for all population groups.

We found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • The practice had continued to support parents in accessing childhood immunisation and had achieved in excess of 95% uptake.
  • 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.
  • The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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:

  • Consider recording when clinical oversight of test results by non-clinical has taken place.
  • Consider practice wide joint meetings between clinical and administration staff.
  • Consider providing more detailed information about recognising, recording and responding to near-miss incidents
  • Consider reviewing policies and guidance in relation to the conclusions of enquiries into incidents, complaints and concern so that all investigations include a review of the relevant policies and procedures and outcomes are clearly documented. This will support practice-wide and sustained change when appropriate.
  • Ensure that information about the availability of the interpreter service is always visually accessible when patients enter the practice.

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

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We carried out an announced focussed inspection at Heath Prescot Medical Centre on 29 November 2019. We carried out an inspection of this service following our annual review of the information available to us and due to the length of time since the last inspection.

This inspection looked at the following key questions safe; effective; responsive and well-led. Because of the assurance received from our review of information we carried forward the ratings for the following key questions: caring.

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 have rated this practice as requires improvement overall and requires improvement for all population groups.

We found that:

The practice required improvement in the safe and responsive key questions because:

  • The practice did not have robust systems to learn and make improvements when things went wrong.
  • The practice did not keep all personal information and prescriptions secure.
  • The practice did not have the proper processes in place for receiving and dealing with complaints.
  • However, safeguarding and child protection processes were robust, the practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs and patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

We found that:

The practice was rated as good in effective and well-led because:

  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • The leadership team had the capacity to deliver high-quality care; staff were clear about their roles and accountability to support good governance.
  • There was an open and listening culture.
  • The provider had clear and detailed clinical oversight.
  • The provider had developed a written comprehensive business development plan to support future progress and on-going improvements.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance arrangements are in place.
  • Ensure that any complaint received is investigated and proportionate action is taken in response to any failing identified by the complaint or investigation and, ensure there is an effective system for identifying, receiving, recording, handling and responding to complaints by patients and other persons in relation to the carrying on of the regulated activity.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Take account of systems to support the safety of online services.
  • Take account and review the standard of infection control audits.
  • Have regard to guidance in relation to training for staff who act as chaperones.
  • Have regard to providing reception staff with basic sepsis training.
  • Have regard to confirming all safety alerts are actioned as required.
  • Have regard to all parts of recruitment legislation so that information about the medical fitness of staff employed is obtained.

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

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

31 May 2016

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at this practice on the 10th February 2015 and at this time the practice was rated as good.

However, breaches of a legal requirement were also found. After the comprehensive inspection the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet the following legal requirements set out in the Health and Social Care Act (HSCA) 2008:

Regulation 21 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010, which corresponds to Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

On the 31st May 2016 we carried out a focused review of this service under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This review was carried out to check whether the provider had completed the improvements identified during the comprehensive inspection carried out in February 2015.

This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and areas considered for improvement. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Heath Prescot Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

The findings of this review were as follows:

  • The practice had addressed the issues identified during the previous inspection.

  • Appropriate recruitment checks had been carried out for staff and the practice had updated their recruitment policy to include all required checks for newly employed staff. The practice had undertaken checks for staff members.

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

10 February 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This is the report of findings from our inspection of Dr. Heath, Prescot Medical Centre. The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services.

We undertook a planned, comprehensive inspection on 10 February 2015 at the practice location in Prescot, Merseyside. We spoke with patients, relatives, staff and the practice management team.

The practice was rated overall as good. They provided effective, responsive care that was well led and addressed the needs of the population it served. The service was safe, caring and compassionate.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • Systems were in place to ensure incidents and significant events were identified, investigated and reported. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Lessons learnt were disseminated to staff. Infection risks and medicines were managed safely. However, improvements were needed to ensure staff were safely recruited and required information in respect of staff was held.
  • People’s needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered in line with current legislation and guidance. Patients experienced outcomes that were in line with or above the national average. The practice used innovative and proactive methods to improve patient outcomes. For example comprehensive care plans for vulnerable and older patients to reduce unplanned admissions and development of care plans and pathways for other population groups.
  • Patients spoke highly of the practice. They said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
  • The practice provided good care to its population that was responsive to their health and socio economic needs. Patients were listened to and feedback was acted upon. Complaints were managed appropriately.
  • The practice monitored, evaluated and improved services. Staff enjoyed working for the practice and felt well supported and valued. There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider must:

  • Take action to ensure its recruitment arrangements are in line with Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to ensure necessary employment checks are in place for all staff and the required information in respect of workers is held.

..

In addition the provider should:

  • Implement a system for identifying and managing local risks associated with the practice. For example general environmental and health and safety risk assessments.
  • Ensure the recruitment policy was in line with current guidance and regulations and contains sufficient information to ensure a suitable process was in place for safe recruitment and induction of staff. Ensure that newly recruited staff are fully inducted and the induction is documented.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice