The Sunflower Medical Centre

Updated 8 July 2022

The Sunflower Medical Centre operates from 116 Chaplin Road, Wembley, Brent HA0 4UZ. The premises are in a purpose-built building co-located with four other GP practices and owned by NHS Property Services. The practice is currently part of a wider network of GP practices called Harness Care Federation. There is on site patient pay and display parking with easy access to public transport.

The practice is regulated by the Care Quality Commission to provide treatment of disease, disorder or injury; diagnostic and screening procedures and maternity and midwifery services.

The practice provides NHS services through a General Medical Services (GMS) contract to approximately 3,200 patients. It is part of the NHS Brent Clinical Commissioning group (CCG) within the Kingsbury and Willesden locality. The practice’s clinical team is led by two GP partners, two nurses and one healthcare assistant. There are two additional locum GPs also on the staffing list. A clinical pharmacist provided by the primary care network works on Monday and Wednesday morning alongside the practice’s administrative team which is made up of a practice manager, receptionists and an administrator. The practice also has a social prescriber who works on Friday mornings and a mental health liaison nurse who works on alternate Friday afternoons.

The practice is open between 8.00am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday and extended hours are provided between 6.30pm and 7pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The practice offers telephone consultations and home visits are available and need to be requested by phone. The practice has opted out of providing an out-of-hours service. Patients calling the practice when it is closed are informed about the NHS 111 service and details of the local out-of-hours service provider. Information is provided on the practice website regarding the NHS 111 service.

The patient profile for the practice indicates a population of working age people comparable to the national average, with a higher proportion of adults in the 30 to 39 age range. There are a slightly higher proportion of children and young people but fewer older people in the area compared to the national average.

Services provided include child health surveillance, chronic disease management, minor surgery, family planning, travel vaccinations, phlebotomy and health promotion.

Updated 8 July 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Sunflower Medical Centre on 10 May 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Set out the ratings for each key question

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 7 December 2020 the practice was rated Good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focussed inspection carried out as part of our ongoing monitoring activities. During this inspection we focussed on:

• The key questions of Safe, Effective and Well-led
• Areas we told the provider they should review and improve at the previous inspection

How we carried out the inspection

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 inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short site visit

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 have rated this practice as Good overall

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.

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

• Continue to review and improve achievement in antibiotic prescribing and cervical screening.
• Review processes for managing patients diagnosed with long term conditions to ensure reviews are carried out on time.

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