Background to this inspection
Updated
22 September 2021
Earls Court Medical Centre is situated at 248 Earls Court Road, London, SW5 9AD in a three-storey purpose-built medical centre. Clinical rooms are located on the first and second floor, which are accessible by lift and stairs. The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS West London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to approximately 6,200 patients.
The practice is registered as a partnership with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, maternity and midwifery services, family planning and surgical procedures.
The practice includes two GP partners (one male and one female) and two salaried GPs (one male and one female), providing 19 clinical sessions per week. They are supported by a part-time practice nurse and a full-time healthcare assistant.
The practice core hours are between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours appointments are available on Saturday from 9am to 3pm for doctor and healthcare assistant appointments. In addition, patients can also access GP and practice nurse appointments from 6.30pm-8pm on Monday to Friday and from 8am–8pm on Saturdays and Sundays at GP hubs in the area. The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients and directs patients to the NHS 111 service.
Information published by Public Health England rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as four on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Data shows that almost 60% of patients at the practice area were from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups.
Updated
22 September 2021
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Earls Court Medical Centre on 14 January 2020. The overall rating for the practice was good, with the exception of key question Effective which was rated requires improvement. The full report on the 14 January 2020 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Earls Court Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Set out the ratings for each key question
Safe - Good
Effective - Good
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led - Good
This review was an announced focused follow-up review carried out on 27 July 2021 to confirm that the practice continued to make improvements on areas that we had identified at our previous inspection held on 14 January 2020. This report covers our findings in relation to those improvements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection. This review of information was undertaken without carrying out a site visit.
Why we carried out this review
This review was a focused review of information without undertaking a site visit inspection to follow up on:
- Continue to review and improve the uptake of cervical screening and the childhood immunisation programme.
- Review the monitoring of immunisation status for staff in direct patient contact in line with guidance.
- Action the outcomes of the recent Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) audit.
How we carried out the review
Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our reviews differently.
This review was carried out in a way which enabled us to review information sent to us by the practice and to spend no time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
This included:
- Requesting evidence from the provider
- Reviewing data from the Quality and outcomes framework (QOF)
- Asking for information from local stakeholders, such as; Healthwatch and the local Patient Participation Group (PPG).
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.
At this inspection we found there had been sufficient improvement to rate the Effective key question Good. The ratings for the practice are therefore now good overall and good for all population groups with the exception of the population group working age people which is rated requires improvement for effective services as breast, bowel cancer screening were lower than local and national averages and cervical screening outcomes were significantly below national targets.
We found that:
- The service had reviewed the monitoring of immunisation status for staff and ensured that staff were immunised consummate to their role.
- The practice had actioned the recommendations of the recent Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) audit.
- The service had improved its uptake of childhood immunisations.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Continue to review and improve the uptake of cervical screening and the childhood immunisation programme.
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