Black Country Family Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Black Country Family Practice on 16 July 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

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 have rated this practice as Requires Improvement overall and Requires Improvement for all population groups.

We rated the practice as Requires Improvement for providing Effective and Responsive services and Requires improvement for all population groups because:

• Published data relating to the practice’s performance demonstrated that the practice did not always provide the care and treatment that patients needed. For example, for patients with diabetes, patients with cancer and patients experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).
• The practice was aware that patient satisfaction relating to access to care and treatment was significantly lower than local and national averages in some areas. The practice was taking steps to address this and had conducted their own patient satisfaction survey. They  provided data to show patient satisfaction had improved however patients were still finding it difficult to make an appointment and the practice could not demonstrate that patient satisfaction had improved significantly.

We rated the practice as Good for providing Safe, Caring, and well-led services because:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• All staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents. The provider took all opportunities to learn from internal and external incidents.
• From patient feedback we received during the inspection and data the practice gave us we saw that patients felt they were treated with kindness and respect and felt involved in decisions about their care.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of person-centre care. The provider had clear vision and values that centred on providing patient centred sustainable care.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Review their system for maintaining an accurate audit trail of prescription stationery.
• Continue to review patient satisfaction with regards to telephone and appointment access to further improve services.
• Continue with efforts to improve performance across areas such as cancer screening and management, management of patients with diabetes and patients experiencing low mental health.

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