An urgent treatment and primary medical service in Birmingham and Solihull has been rated outstanding following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in November and December 2023.
CQC inspected Birmingham and District General Practitioner Emergency Room Limited (Badger) and found a service where people benefitted from outstanding care.
Following the latest inspection, the service was rated outstanding overall and for being effective, caring, responsive and well-led. It has again been rated good for safety.
Badger provides in-hours and out-of-hours (OOH) GP services for its GP member practices. The service also has contracts with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board to provide urgent treatment in and out-of-hours when GP practices are closed. Services are also provided to St Giles Hospice in Whittington and to HMP Birmingham.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said:
“When we inspected Birmingham and District General Practitioner Emergency Room Limited (Badger), we found a service where managers and staff went the extra mile to ensure people received the best possible care. The service really understood what people needed.
“Staff told us there were no time restrictions on how long clinicians could spend with people using the service. This allowed time for people to ask questions and not feel rushed. People told us they felt welcomed and put at ease. People could also access out-of-hours care at a location of their choice and at a time that suited them and where appropriate a home visit or a telephone call with a clinician.
“During the inspection staff told us about projects that had arisen directly as a result of responding to people’s feedback. For example, a meet and greet staff member at the urgent treatment centre at Solihull Hospital to help support people and prioritise people with more urgent needs, and the implementation of a new booking system, that enabled people to control which urgent treatment centre they attended.
“All staff should be extremely proud of the care they’re providing to people. They clearly work hard to provide exceptional care and other providers should look at this report to see if there’s anything they can learn.”
CQC inspectors found:
- There were effective systems in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults and to ensure no contacts were lost
- People said that staff went above and beyond their duties to provide great care. The provider monitored people’s feedback and used this to further improve their service
- The service had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes
- From people’s feedback, CQC heard that people found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it
- CQC found clear evidence of working in partnership with others to continue to improve the service.