Background to this inspection
Updated
24 March 2020
The Acocks Green Medical Centre is situated in a converted residential property based in the Acocks Green area of Birmingham. The practice has good transport links and there is a pharmacy located at the property.
Acocks Green Medical Centre is situated within the Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 5,075 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The service is registered to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, surgical procedures and the treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The practice is led by a GP partner (male), who is currently absent. Two locum GPs (one male and one female) are currently supporting the practice. The clinical team also includes an advanced nurse practitioner, a nurse prescriber and a healthcare assistant and a clinical pharmacist (all female). The practice is supported by a business manager, a practice manager and team of staff who cover reception, administrative, secretarial and cleaning duties. The practice is not currently part of any wider network of GP practices.
There are lower than average number of patients under the age of 65, in comparison to local and national averages. The National General Practice Profile states that 32% of the practice population is from an Asian background with a further 11% of the population originating from black, mixed or other non-white ethnic groups. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as two, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.
The practice is open between 9am and 6.30pm on weekdays, except Wednesday and phone lines were open from 8:30am to 6.30pm. When the practice is closed between 1pm and 2pm and on Wednesday afternoons, patients are diverted to the Badger service who are contracted to provide in-hours telephone coverage for the practice. Patients can access evening and weekend appointments through an extended access hub arrangement with another practice situated 2.5 miles away from the practice. These appointments are available Monday to Friday from 6.30pm to 8pm and on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. When the practice is closed patients can access advice through the NHS 111 service.
Updated
24 March 2020
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Acocks Green Medical Centre on 11 February 2020 as part of our inspection programme.
The practice was rated as inadequate overall and for all key questions with the exception of caring and responsive and placed into special measures at our previous inspection in June 2019. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection on 26 June 2019; by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Acocks Green Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This report covers our findings in relation to improvements made since our last inspection and any additional improvements we found at this inspection. The report covers our findings in relation to all five key questions and six population groups.
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.
At the time of the inspection the provider was absent from the practice. Alternative arrangements were in place for the management and leadership of the practice to support the implementation of the action plan in place to drive improvement and become compliant with Health and Social Act regulations.
We have rated this practice as good overall and good for all population groups, except children, families and young people and working age people (including those recently retired) which we rated as requires improvement in the Effective key question.
We rated the practice as requires improvement for children, families and young people and working age people (including those recently retired) in the effective key question because:
- Childhood immunisation rates were lower than local and national averages.
- Cervical cancer screening results were lower than national targets. The practice encouraged patients to attend their appointments and information was available at the practice on the importance of cancer screening.
We rated the practice good for providing safe, caring, responsive and well led services because:
- The practice had implemented processes to ensure the safeguarding registers had been reviewed and updated to ensure they were appropriate. The local safeguarding lead had supported the practice to ensure the registers were accurate and up to date for vulnerable patients.
- All patients on high risk medicines with outstanding reviews had been invited to attend the practice for follow up.
- Systems and processes had been reviewed to ensure risk assessments were in place and monitored on a regular basis to mitigate risk.
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. This included monitoring of safety alerts and ensuring all staff were aware of actions taken and learning was shared.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. Reviews of patients with complex needs had been completed. With the absence of the Principal GP, the clinical team had implemented a range of systems to monitor patients’ care through regular clinical audits and discussions at weekly clinical meetings.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. The practice monitored telephone access to ensure peak times were being managed and had reviewed the roles of the clinical team to provide a co-ordinated care approach for patients.
- The practice had positively embraced the concerns identified and had a risk stratification in place to ensure risks were prioritised and acted on. These included the prompt actioning of pathology results, reviewing safeguarding registers and the monitoring of patients on high risk medicines.
- The leadership team had implemented regular meetings. These included clinical and practice meetings. Significant events, complaints and safety alerts were standing agenda items and evidence provided demonstrated that learning was shared across the team.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Continue to encourage patients to attend cervical screening appointments.
- Continue with efforts to improve uptake of childhood immunisations and cancer screening overall.
- Continue to monitor and improve telephone access.
I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements that have been made to the quality of care provided by this service.
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