A Failsworth GP has received a ‘good’ result following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection.

Quayside Medical Practice, located in the Failsworth District Centre on Ashton Road West, was inspected on November 8, with the report, authored by chief inspector Dr Sean O’Kelly, published on December 15.

The inspection was announced to the practice in advance.

The GP was judged as being ‘good’ in all five key questions of whether the GP was safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.

Inspectors noted the practice’s patient list had increased by around 10,000 patients since January 2022 due to the closure of a nearby GP.

The GP received the same overall rating as it did when it was last inspected in 2015, though the ‘caring’ category was downgraded from ‘outstanding’ – though inspectors said this was because areas that had been previously regarded as outstanding ‘were now embedded through the majority of GP practices’.

Inspectors praised the practice for keeping patients safe, providing effective care, dealing with patients kindly and with respect, and ensuring patients could access treatment in a ‘timely way’.

The report also noted some areas of potential improvement.

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Inspectors said that while there were no breaches of regulations, the GP should aim to improve their systems to show all patient blood tests have been checked before issuing Warfarin – an anticoagulant drug.

The report went on to recommend that trend analysis of significant events be carried out to find out if any further action is needed for repeated issues, and told the provider to continue to monitor and improve the uptake of cervical screenings and childhood vaccinations.

Examples of ‘significant events’ which had occurred included: unclear labelling and the wrong receptacle used for urine analysis; a patient not provided with full information regarding their diagnosis; a delay in receiving patient medical history for a new patient, potentially impacting the care provided.

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In all examples, procedures were changed following the issues.

The went on to say action should be taken to provide eligible patients with a steroid card.

The card helps support early recognition and treatment of potentially fatal adrenal crises in adults with adrenal insufficiency by providing instructions to healthcare providers to warn them of the dangers of stopping steroid therapy. 

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