Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) makes sure hospitals, care homes, dental and GP surgeries, and all other care services in England provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care, and encourages them to make improvements where possible.

They do this by inspecting services and publishing the results on their website: www.cqc.org.uk

You can use the results to help you make better decisions about the care you, or someone you care for, receives.

Our CQC Inspection

Our practice is inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to ensure we are meeting essential standards of quality and safety.

This widget provides a summary of the results of the latest checks carried out by the CQC.

Updated: 28th May 2025 (ABolton)

Complaints

We always try to give you the best service possible but there may be times, when you feel this has not happened

If you have any complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or staff working for this surgery you are entitled to ask for an explanation.  We operate an in-house complaints procedure to deal with your complaints.  This procedure does not deal with matters of legal liability or compensation.  In some cases the in-house procedure is not an appropriate form of investigation, in which case you will be referred to the appropriate authority.

HOW TO COMPLAIN

Should the service that you receive from our practice not meet your requirements and the high standard aspired to by the practice then please let us know. We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If this is not possible then please inform us as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days.

Please email your complaint to to HCCG.Beechesmc@nhs.net

or write to us at the following address;

The Beeches Medical Centre, 20 Ditchfield Road, Widnes, Cheshire, WA8 8QS

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days by letter or email and aim to fully investigate your complaint within 10 working days of the date it was received. If we expect it to take longer we will explain the reason for the delay and tell you when you can expect our response. When we review your compliant , we will investigate the circumstances; make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned; make sure you receive an apology if appropriate and take steps to prevent such problems arising again.

You will receive a final letter setting out the result of any practice investigation.

COMPLAINING ON BEHALF OF SOMEONE ELSE

We have to adhere to strict rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone you will need to obtain their written consent to do so, (unless there is incapacity through illness).

TAKING IT FURTHER – What happens if I prefer to complain directly to the commissioning organisation?

How you make a complaint about primary care services is changing on 1 July 2023

You have the right to make a complaint about any aspect of NHS care, treatment or service, and this is written into the NHS Constitution on GOV.UK.

From 1 July 2023 the way members of the public make a complaint about primary care services to the commissioner is changing.

 By primary care services we mean GPs, dentists, opticians or pharmacy services.

There are two ways you can make a complaint:

  • You can complain to the healthcare provider: this is the organisation where you received the NHS service, for example a GP surgery or dental surgery.
  • You can complain to the commissioner of the service: this is the organisation that paid for the service or care you received.

After 1 July 2023 if you want to make a complaint about primary care services to the commissioner you will now contact NHS Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board instead of NHS England.

You can do this by:

  • Telephone: 0800 132 996
  • Writing to us at:  Patient Experience Team, No 1 Lakeside, 920 Centre Park Square, Warrington, WA11QY.

If you want to make a complaint directly to the provider of the primary care service, you still can – that does not change on the 1 July 2023.

Members of the public with ongoing complaints received on/after 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is now handling their complaint with confirmation of their case handler.

Members of the public with any ongoing complaints received before 1 July 2022 will receive a letter from NHS England informing them that their complaint is being retained by NHS England with confirmation of their case handler.

Find out more about how to feedback or make a complaint about an NHS service 

You can also complain to CQC – Care Quality Commission tel: 03000 616161.

 

Updated: 28th May 2025 (ABolton)

Duty of Candour

At The Beeches Medical Centre, we share a common purpose with our partners in health and social care – and that is to provide high quality care and ensure the best possible outcomes for the people who use our services. Promoting improvement is at the heart of what we do.

We endeavour to provide a first class service at all times but sometimes things go wrong and our service may fall below our expected levels.
In order to comply with Regulation 20 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulations 2014) we pledge to:
  • Have a culture of openness and honesty at all levels
  • Inform patients in a timely manner when safety incidents have occurred which may affect them
  • Provide a written and truthful account of the incident, explaining any investigations and enquiries made
  • Provide a written apology
  • Provide support if you are affected directly by an incident.
Updated: 21st May 2025 (ABolton)

Privacy Notice

The following privacy notice explains in detail why we use your personal data which we, the GP practice (Data Controller), collects and processes about you.  A Data Controller determines how the data will be processed and used and who this data will be shared with. We are legally responsible for ensuring that all personal data that we hold and use is done so in a way that meets the data protection principles under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018.  This notice also explains how we handle that data and keep it safe.

Please CLICK HERE to view our practice privacy notice.

Updated: 21st May 2025 (ABolton)

 

Safeguarding at The Beeches Medical Centre

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding simply means keeping people safe from harm. It is about protecting children and adults from abuse or neglect. There are many different types of abuse.

Types of abuse that children can suffer include:

  • physical abuse
  • sexual abuse
  • neglect
  • emotional abuse
  • domestic abuse
  • bullying and cyberbullying
  • child sexual exploitation
  • child trafficking
  • criminal exploitation and gangs
  • female genital mutilation
  • grooming

For more information on these types of abuse and how you can spot them, visit:

 

Types of abuse that adults can suffer include:

  • physical abuse
  • sexual abuse
  • domestic abuse
  • psychological or emotional abuse
  • financial or material abuse
  • modern slavery
  • discriminatory abuse
  • organisational or institutional abuse
  • neglect
  • self-neglect

For more information on these types of abuse, you can visit:

 

  • Social Care Institute of Excellence:

https://www.scie.org.uk/safeguarding/adults/introduction/types-and-indicators-of-abuse

Who is responsible for safeguarding?

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Here at The Beeches Medical Centre, all staff members play a role in safeguarding. Safeguarding is not just something we choose to do, it is also something we are required by law to do.

At The Beeches Medical Centre, the Safeguarding Lead is Dr Baker and the Deputy Safeguarding Lead is Dr Maguire.

How does The Beeches Medical Centre safeguard children and adults who are, or who might be, experiencing abuse or neglect?

Keeping children and adults safe from abuse and neglect cannot be done by one person or one agency. At the heart of any safeguarding process is the child or adult who may be suffering abuse. We work in partnership with our patients who are, or who are at risk of, experiencing abuse as well as their families and advocates as appropriate.

We work closely with our health colleagues such as health visitors, the school nursing team, midwives, paediatricians, mental health teams and other hospital colleagues.  We also work with our partner agencies locally such as child and adult social care, education and the police to ensure any child or adult suffering abuse can be supported and protected and any concerns about abuse can be properly investigated.

To find out more about how agencies work together in Cheshire to keep children and adults safe visit:

 

Safeguarding Training

All staff at The Beeches Medical Centre have the appropriate levels of safeguarding training for their job role. Safeguarding training standards are set nationally for all healthcare professionals and we follow this national guidance. Safeguarding training is essential to ensure all staff are able to spot signs of abuse or neglect and take action. We work hard to make safeguarding a key priority for our practice and our patients.

What will happen if a GP or any member of staff at the practice is worried that a child or adult is being abused or neglected?

All staff in the practice have a duty and responsibility to speak up and say something if they are worried a child or adult might be being abused or neglected. If any staff member has concerns they will discuss this with the practice Safeguarding Lead or with one of the other GPs who will decide what needs to happen next.

If a doctor is concerned that a child or young person is at risk of abuse or neglect, they must take steps to make sure the child or young person is protected. It can be very upsetting and stressful for families when this happens and parents often have questions about what their doctor may or may not do.

This leaflet from the General Medical Council (GMC) helps to answer those questions:

https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents/what-to-expect-if-your-doctor-is-worried-about-your-child-s-safety-78085189.pdf?la=en

If a doctor is concerned that an adult is at risk of abuse or neglect, they will

  • Ask the person if they require any immediate support to keep themselves safe
  • Explain how safeguarding works
  • Ask the person what they would like to happen
  • Support the person in a way to give them choice and control to improve their quality of life, well-being and safety.

To do this the doctor will:

  • Listen to the person
  • Understand their views and wishes
  • Take them seriously
  • Treat them with respect
  • Support them to feel as safe as they want
  • Support them to make their own decisions
  • Keep them informed and involved
  • Tell the person what will happen next.

Capacity

When making decisions about what action is necessary to safeguard an adult, healthcare professionals have to consider whether the person has capacity to understand their situation and make decisions about what should happen to them.

What is capacity?

  • Capacity means the ability to use and understand information to make a decision, and communicate any decision made.
  • A person lacks capacity if their mind is impaired or disturbed in some way, which means they’re unable to make a decision at that time.

For more information on capacity visit:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/consent-to-treatment/capacity/

All professionals have to follow The Mental Capacity Act which empowers and protects people who are not able to make their own decisions. This covers decisions about property and financial affairs, health, welfare and where they live.

For more information on The Mental Capacity Act visit:

https://safeguardingadults.co.uk/keeping-safe/mental-capacity-act/

Information Sharing

Sharing information with other relevant professionals is an important part of safeguarding. Sadly, reviews of cases where a child or adult has been killed or seriously harmed due to abuse or neglect, have often found that professionals have not shared the right information with the right person at the right time to keep the child or adult safe.

All staff at the practice must comply with the law and national guidance when making decisions about information sharing. The General Medical Council (GMC) provide guidance for doctors making decisions about information sharing. The practice also follows the Caldicott Principles:

  1. Justify the purpose(s) for using confidential information
  2. Don’t use personal confidential data unless it is absolutely necessary
  3. Use the minimum necessary personal confidential data
  4. Access to personal confidential data should be on a strict need-to-know basis
  5. Everyone with access to personal confidential data should be aware of their responsibilities
  6. Comply with the law
  7. The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality

As a general rule we will ask for the person’s (or relevant parent/guardian, advocate, Power of Attorney) permission before sharing information for safeguarding purposes.

However, there are circumstances where we will need to share information even without the person’s permission (consent). Examples of these circumstances include:

  • Other people are, or may be, at risk, including children
  • Sharing the information could prevent a serious crime
  • A serious crime has been committed
  • Someone in a position of trust is implicated in causing abuse/neglect
  • The risk of serious harm or death is very high in a domestic abuse situation
  • A court order has requested the information

Again as a general rule, we will inform the person that we will need to share information about them in order to keep them or others safe from serious harm, as long as this does not increase risk of harm to the person or others.

Where can you get help if you are worried you or someone else is suffering abuse or neglect?

Remember:

  • Abuse is always wrong
  • No one should have to live with abuse
  • By reporting abuse you can help bring it to an end

Worried about a child?

Where there are significant immediate concerns about the safety of a child, you should contact the police on 999.

if you are worried about any child and think they may be a victim of neglect or abuse, you can make a referral to:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

 

Worried about an adult?

If you or the person you are concerned about is in danger and immediate action is required, you should ring the emergency services on 999.

If you or the person you are concerned about is not in immediate danger, you should ring

  • Adults Social Care – Tel: 0151 907 8306
  • Adults Social Care Out of Hours – Tel: 0345 050 0148

You can also speak in confidence to any member of The Beeches Medical Centre.

Training Practice

The practice is a training practice so you may sometimes see a GP Registrar.

Registrars are fully trained doctors who are gaining experience in general practice. Sometimes if you book an appointment with a registrar there may be occasions when a receptionist or registrar will ask if you would agree to have your consultation videoed to assist training or to use your telephone consultation recording for their training purposes.

The recordings is to assist them and their training mentors to observe their consultations. You have the right to refuse to be videoed.

A receptionist will always ask for your permission before you go in for your consultation. Please do not feel obliged to have your consultation videoed if you feel uncomfortable with  this, please let a receptionist know.

Currently as of May 2025 we have two GP Registrars;

Dr Raza Younus (m)

Updated: 28th May 2025 (ABolton)

Help for Disabled Patients

The building facilities comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

If you have any special needs please let our staff know so that we can help and ensure you get the same support in the future.

Wheelchair access

The Surgery has been specially designed to make it easier for disabled patients to visit. There are no steps at the entrance of the building giving patients easy access. Due to fire regulations, we do have heavy fire doors, however if you have trouble opening these please ask Reception for assistance as they are always happy to help.

There is 2 dedicated disabled car parking spaces available immediately outside the front entrance of The Surgery.

We have a disabled toilets one on the on the ground floor.

Disabled Parking – Blue Badge Scheme

The Blue Badge scheme is for people with severe mobility problems. It allows Blue Badge holders to park close to where they need to go.

Loop System

We have a loop induction system at the reception desk to assist the hearing impaired. For more information on the loop hearing system visit Hearing Link website.

We have a visual aid for patients via our patient call system display board, which is updated periodically with topical information.

Blind/Partially Sighted

If you or family members are blind or partially sighted we can give you a large print of our practice leaflet upon request. Please ask Reception for further information.

If you need any assistance in walking to the consultation rooms please ask one of our receptionists who will be pleased to offer their assistance

For more advice and support for blind people please see the following websites:

Guide Dogs

Guide dogs are welcome at the surgery but we ask that you be aware of other patients and staff who may have an allergy or fear of dogs.

Further Information:

Other Disability Websites

Updated: 21st May 2025 (ABolton)

Subject Access Requests

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records.

Patients need to request their medical records in writing or using one or the practices Subject Access Request forms that are available below or at reception.

The request can take up to 28 working days to be processed and ready for collection.

Please see below for a Subject Access Form;

Beeches MC – Subject Access Request Form

Please see below for our Subject Access Request Policy for more information on accessing your medical records;

 

Updated: 21st May 2025 (ABolton)

 

GP & Patient Responsibilities (Code of Practice)

What you can expect from us….

  • We will treat you with honesty, respect, dignity and understanding.
  • We will treat you as an individual.
  • We will respect your privacy and right to confidentiality.
  • We will provide health promotion and screening as our commitment to patient care.
  • All information we may hold will be treated with total confidentiality in accordance with the law.
  • Information about you will only be released to a third party with your written consent.
  • You will be provided with full information about the practice and the services we offer.
  • We will support you in caring for yourself to improve and maintain your health
  • We will ensure that all staff undertake relevant and appropriate training

What we expect from you….

  • You should recognise that you can make a significant contribution to your own and your family’s good health and well-being and take some personal responsibility for it.
  • You should treat NHS staff and other patients with honesty, dignity, respect and understanding.
  • You should adhere to our strict zero tolerance policy towards all staff at the Practice.
  • You should recognise that causing a nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises could result in a prosecution.
  • You should provide accurate information about your health, condition and status.
  • You should use NHS services responsibly.
  • You should keep appointments at the surgery or any other NHS service or cancel within reasonable time. Receiving treatment within a maximum waiting time may be compromised unless you do.
  • You should follow the course of treatment which you have agreed and talk to your clinician if you find this difficult.
  • You should participate in important public health programmes such as vaccination and screening.
  • You should ensure that those closest to you are aware of your wishes about organ donation.
  • You should attend for your annual long-term condition reviews (if applicable).
  • You should attend for regular blood monitoring if requested to do so by the practice.
  • You should give feedback – both positive and negative – about the treatment and care you have received including any adverse reactions you may have had.
  • You should keep you contact details up to date.
  • You should accommodate practice systems and initiatives such as care navigation.
Updated: 21st May 2025 (ABolton)

Patient Forum

The practice has a patient forum group which meets to discuss the annual patient survey report and offers suggestions to help us deliver and improve patient services.