Background to this inspection
Updated
10 May 2019
Dr Rex Obonna is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary care services for around 1,850 patients. The practice is part of Sunderland clinical commissioning group (CCG) and operates on a General Medical Services (GMS) contract agreement for general practice.
The practice provides services from the following address, which we visited during this inspection:
- Southwick Health Centre, The Green, Southwick, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR5 2LT.
The practice maintains a website: .
The practice is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:
- Diagnostic and screening procedures
- Maternity and midwifery services
- Surgical procedures
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
The practice is based in purpose-built premises in Sunderland that are shared with two other GP practices and external healthcare services. All the practices’ services are provided on the ground floor and consultation rooms are fully accessible. There is on-site parking and disabled parking.
Patients can book appointments in person, on-line or by telephone. The service for patients requiring urgent medical attention out of hours is provided by the NHS 111 service and Vocare, which is also known locally as Northern Doctors Urgent Care.
The practice has one GP (male) and one practice nurse (female). They also employ a practice manager and, four staff who undertake administrative or reception roles. The practice told us that if a patient requested an appointment with a female GP they could see a female GP at a practice in the same building.
Information taken from Public Health England placed the area in which the practice is in the most deprived decile. In general, people living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services.
The average male life expectancy is 76 years, which is three years lower than the England average and the average female life expectancy is 80 years, which is also three years lower than the England average. 97.8% of the practice population are white, 0.6% are mixed race, 1.2% are Asian, 0.3% are black and 0.1% are from other races. The proportion of patients with a long-standing health condition is above the national average (61.3% compared to the national average of 51.2%). The proportion of patients, who are in paid work or full-time employment, or education, is below the national average (46.3% compared to the national average of 61.9%).
Updated
10 May 2019
We carried out an announced focused inspection at Dr Rex Obonna on 12 April 2019. This was as part of our ongoing inspection programme and to check the practice had made the improvements we said they should when we last inspected the practice in July 2018.
At the last inspection on 3 July 2018, we rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:
- The arrangements to monitor patients who were prescribed high-risk medicines were not always effective.
- The practice’s system to monitor and record health and safety was not effective and fire safety records were incomplete.
We also rated the practice as requires improvement for providing an effective service for working age people (including those recently retired and students) because:
- Performance in relation to the detection and monitoring of cancer was lower than average.
At this inspection, we found that the provider had satisfactorily addressed these areas, although the practice should make further improvements to ensure they monitor all high-risk medicines.
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 rated this practice as good overall. (Previous rating July 2018 – Good). We rated the practice as good for providing safe services because:
- The practice had improved the way they monitored the health of patients prescribed high-risk medicines.
- They had implemented and improved systems to monitor the risks relating to health and safety and fire safety.
At our previous inspection in July 2018, we told the practice they should review the arrangements for the patient participation group to encourage and act upon the feedback from the group. In April 2019, we also found the practice had tried to improve the arrangements for the patient participation group, to increase membership. They continued to promote the group, both in the practice waiting area and on their website. However, they had failed to recruit any new members. They told us they used other sources of patient feedback, such as surveys, the NHS friends and family tests, complaints and compliments to inform service improvements.
The area where the provider should make improvements is:
- Develop the approach to monitor patients’ health in relation to the use of medicines to include all high-risk medicines.
- Improve the focus of significant event analysis to those which will add value to the practice and better support learning and improvement. Implement a periodic review of significant events to identify trends and themes.
- Take action to increase the uptake of cervical screening to meet the 80% national target.
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