City Health Centre

Updated 1 March 2024

City Health Centre is located in purpose-built premises at

449 City Road,

Birmingham,

B17 8LG.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 3,400. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

West Birmingham Primary Care Network (PCN). This PCN consists of 8 practices working together to provide a wider range of services to the local population. The PCN employs additional staff working to support all practices within the PCN. This includes pharmacists, social prescribers and a mental health practitioner.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third decile (on a scale of 1 to 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 37.7% Asian, 36% White, 14.3% Black, 4.8% Mixed, and 7.1% Other. The age distribution of the practice population depicts a higher than local and national average patient population aged 20 to 44 years. There is a lower than local and national average patient population aged over 55 years.

The practice is led by a single GP who is supported by three regular sessional (locum) GPs, 1 advanced nurse practitioner and 2 practice nurses. In addition, there is GP assistant and a health care assistant. The GPs are supported at the practice by the business manager, a practice manager, 2 care coordinators and a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is open between 8.30am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided through two primary care network (PCN) hubs. Extended hours offered were each weekday evening from 6.30pm to 8pm and at weekends from 9am to 12pm.

Out of hours services are accessed via NHS 111.

Updated 1 March 2024

We carried out an announced focused assessment of the responsive key question at City Health Centre at on 7 February 2024. The rating for the responsive key question is Requires Improvement. As the other domains were not reviewed during this assessment, the rating of good will be carried forward from the previous inspection and the overall rating of the service will remain Good.

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive – Requires Improvement

Well-led – Good.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for City Health Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection.

We carried out this inspection to undertake a targeted assessment of the key question of responsive.

We recognise the pressure that practices are currently working under, and the efforts staff are making to maintain levels of access for their patients. At the same time, our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. Although we saw the practice was attempting to improve access, this was not yet reflected in the GP patient survey data. Therefore, the rating is ‘requires improvement’ as ratings depend on evidence of impact and must reflect the lived experience that people were reporting at the time of inspection.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out remotely.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.

Our findings

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 found that:

• The practice understood the needs of its local population and tailored services to meet those needs.
• The practice continuously audited and adjusted services based on patient demand to support patients to access appropriate care.
• The practice worked effectively with local partners to improve access to services for the wider patient population.

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

• Continue with efforts to improve patient satisfaction in relation to access.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care