Practice Plus Group - North West London

Updated 26 March 2024

Practice Plus Group - North West London, provides out-of-hours (OOH) primary medical services primarily when people’s usual GP practices are closed. The out-of-hours service covers a population of over a million people across the outer boroughs of North West London. The provider is contracted by the Northwest London NHS Integrated Commissioning Board to provide the service across Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon and with individual surgeries in Ealing, Hounslow and Barnet.

The base hub operates from an office located at Stockley Park, Hillingdon

Most patients access the service via the NHS 111 telephone service. The call is triaged by a Practice Plus clinician once the call has been transferred to the out of hours service. Patients may be seen by a GP in a primary care clinic; receive a telephone consultation, video consultation or a home visit from a GP, depending on their assessed needs. The service operates three out-of-hours primary care clinics which run from the premises of host organisations. These are located at:

• Northwick Park Hospital, Watford Road, Harrow, HA1 3UJ (evenings and weekends)
• Hillingdon Hospital, Pield Heath Road, Uxbridge UB8 3NN (evenings and weekends)
• Skyways Medical Centre, 2 Shelly Crescent, Hounslow TW5 9BJ (weekends only)

The service has a pool of contracted and employed clinicians to provide the service across the week. It employs clinical staff, either based at the main hub or working from home who are responsible for assessing and triaging calls as appropriate. There are administrative teams, also based at the office who are responsible for filling the rotas and handling and monitoring calls and call waits. The service has its own fleet of cars and employs drivers who drive the clinicians attending home visits.

The service employs managers to oversee various aspects of the service including clinical and medical leads; a quality manager; and a patient engagement and stakeholder lead. Overall leadership is provided by the service delivery manager locally, the service medical lead, the London regional manager and the London regional medical director.

The service has recently been awarded the contract to provide the out-of-hours service for North West London as part of an alliance until 2029 by the NHS integrated care board through a competitive process.

The provider is registered to provide the regulated activities: treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.

Updated 26 March 2024

We carried out an announced, focused inspection at Practice Plus Group - North West London on 7 December 2023. The service had notified us of a significant event which raised potential concerns about safety systems at the service and which triggered this inspection. This service was previously inspected at its former address (Unit 1, Square One, Navigator Park, Southall Lane, Southall, Ealing, UB2 5NH). This is the first inspection of the service at its current location.

This practice is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Not inspected

Are services responsive? – Not inspected

Are services well-led? – Good

At this inspection we found:

• The service had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take action to further improve performance data in line with the national quality requirements and targets for out of hours primary care services.
• Work with the office landlord to secure a consistently, comfortable working environment for staff.
• Encourage staff to make use of available opportunities to discuss and raise concerns including anonymous feedback mechanisms.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health and Care