Enter and view: Great Eccleston Health Centre

Healthwatch Lancashire undertook an Enter and View visit to Great Eccleston Health Centre on 5 December 2023. They spoke to 9 patients and 5 staff.

Great Eccleston Health Centre is located on Raikes Road, in the rural village of Great Eccleston. The health centre is in a purpose built, single storey building with a small carpark which includes disabled parking. The health centre has maximum capacity for 9,136 patients with a current number of 7,907 registered patients. 

Registered patients are predominantly older generation white British from the retired, rural and farming communities; there is also a small community of patients who live in a local residential caravan park. Due to on-going housing development in the area there is currently an increase in more ethnically diverse, younger, working families registering at the practice.

Patients can make appointments via the app Patient Access, by telephone or in person. The practice has up to five receptionists available to take telephone bookings dependant on demand of time and day. Same day appointments are usually available, as well as out-of-hours appointments with either the health centre or with partner practices in the Wyre Rural Extended Neighbourhood Primary Care Network (WREN) which includes Great Eccleston, Garstang, Kirkham and Over-Wyre. 

On arrival patients can check-in themselves using an electronic system located within the main waiting room, and patients were also observed checking-in with reception staff. For those needing interpretation services these can be provided via the CoSign Language Line, and this includes British Sign Language (BSL).

There was a lot of health and wellbeing information for patients available within the practice with further advice and support available through the website, which was very informative and easy to use, although several links did not appear to work at the time of viewing for the purpose of this report. There was no opportunity to book appointments through the website although patients were able to book through the Patient Access app. 

Services provided at Great Eccleston Health Centre included GPs, advanced clinical practitioners, specialist nurse practitioners, practice nurses, frailty nurse, social prescribers, care-coordinators, clinical pharmacist, paramedic technician, health visitors, health and wellbeing coaches, a carers champion and administrative staff. 

The practice has an active Patient Participation Group (PPG) and are looking to diversify the group and gain more young people, in order to ensure that the local community is fully represented. 

Overall patients were satisfied with the health centre although there appeared to be a lot of dissatisfaction around making appointments, especially over the telephone due to long waits to speak with reception staff. It was also observed to be long waiting times for some patients to see the clinicians when sat in the waiting room. Patients were satisfied with their care and treatment, although comments around long waits for referrals which were out of the control of the practice, identified the need for more communication around referral procedures. Staff were praising of their work environment and stated that they felt well supported and able to provide person-centred care. 

Accessibility, especially for those who may have limited mobility or are wheelchair users, was identified as a key area requiring improvement. It was also felt that the building was in need of some modernisation and a more cohesive lay-out to improve first impression and patient experience.

The report includes 14 recommendations and a response from the provider.