Updated 16 August 2018
Thorns Road Surgery is situated in Brierley Hill area of the West Midlands and is part of the NHS Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Services are provided under a general medical service (GMS) contract with NHS England.
The practice is long established but there has a been a change in the lead GP due to retirement in August 2017. The practice operates from premises converted from residential use. The building has two levels and patient services were mostly provided on the ground floor. There is direct access to the practice by public transport from the surrounding areas. Parking facilities are available on site. The practice website can be found at
There are approximately 3,400 registered patients, predominantly of white British background. The practice serves a large residential area and the population age demographics and unemployment levels are similar to the national averages. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as five on a scale of one to 10. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level 10 the lowest. However, there are pockets of deprivation within the practice catchment area. Male and female life expectancy in the practice geographical area is lower than the national average at 80 years for males, compared to 79 years nationally and is the same as the national life expectancy for females, 83 years. The percentage of patients with a long-term health condition is 55%, the national average is 54%.
When the practice is closed, patients can access out of hours services (provided by Malling Health at Russells Hall Hospital) by telephoning NHS 111.
The practice is registered as a single-handed provider and is run by a full time GP (female) working eight sessions per week.
Additional staffing consists of:
- A full time salaried GP (male) working eight sessions per week.
- A regular locum GP (female) working one session per week.
- Two practice nurses equivalent to 0.9 whole time equivalent.
- A practice manager.
- An experienced team of reception/administration staff including a senior receptionist and an administrator.
The practice provides surgical procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures as their regulated activities. Family planning services were not registered when we inspected but the provider has made an application to add these to their registration.