Oak Lodge Medical Centre

Updated 19 October 2021

The Oak Lodge Medical Centre is a teaching practice located in Edgware, North London within the NHS Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group. The practice holds a General Medical Services contract (an agreement between NHS England and general practices for delivering primary care services). The practice provides a full range of enhanced services including alcohol support, childhood vaccinations and immunisations, extended hours, dementia support, influenza and pneumococcal immunisations, learning disabilities, minor surgery, patient participation, risk profiling and case management, rota virus and shingles immunisations and unplanned admissions.

The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry out the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and family planning.

The practice had a patient list size of approximately 18,000 at the time of our review.

The staff team at the practice included eight partners. The clinical team included seven GP Partners (four female and three male), seven salaried GPs (four female and three male), two GP registrars (one female and one male) two female F2s, one female nurse practitioner, three female practice nurses and a female health care worker.

These are complimented by a non-clinical team consisting of one non-clinical partner who is the strategic management lead, one deputy manager, one assistant manager, one operational manager and 25 multi-skilled administrative/reception staff.

The practice opening hours were:

• Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6.30pm

Appointments were available at the following times:

• Monday to Friday: 8.30am to 1.00pm and 2.30pm to 5.30pm (1.00pm to 2.00pm daily, access is via telephone).
• Extended hours were offered from 6.30pm to 8.15pm Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 6.30pm to 8.00pm on Thursday and Friday. Additional evening and weekend appointments are accessible via the Enhanced Access Service, Monday to Friday 6.30pm to 8.00pm, and between 8.00am and 8.00pm during the weekend and on bank holidays.

Outside of these times, cover was provided by an out of hours provider.

To assist patients in accessing the service there was an online booking system and a text message reminder service for scheduled appointments. Urgent appointments were available daily and GPs completed telephone consultations.

Updated 19 October 2021

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Oak Lodge Medical Practice in March 2016 as part of our inspection programme. We rated the practice as Good overall. We rated the practice Good for providing safe, effective, caring and well-led services and requires improvement for providing a responsive service. You can read the full report by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Oak Lodge Medical Practice on our website (www.cqc.org.uk).

We were mindful of the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic when considering what type of inspection was necessary and proportionate, this was therefore a desk-based inspection. On 29 September 2021, we carried out a desk-based review to confirm that the practice had carried out improvement plans to their service.

We found that the practice had put measures in place for ongoing improvement. The practice is now rated Good for providing responsive services.

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• What we found when we reviewed the information sent to us by the provider;
• Information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services.

We have rated responsive as Good because:

• Systems have been put in place to monitor and improve access for patients, including the installation of a new telephone system.

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

• Continue to monitor patient feedback in relation to access to services.

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

Updated 17 August 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions.

• Nursing staff had lead roles in chronic disease management and patients at risk of hospital admission were identified as a priority.

• Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. GPs will do home visits if patients with long term conditions to attend surgery for reviews.

• All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check their health and medicines needs were being met. For those patients with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

• The practice offered a ‘one stop’ diabetes clinic to provide all care processes in one visit. They prioritised high risk patients and ensured longer appointment times for patients with complex needs.

Updated 17 August 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people.

• There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations.

• The percentage of patients with asthma, on the register, who have had an asthma review in the preceding 12 months that includes an assessment of asthma control using the three Royal College of Physicians questions was 82% compared to a national average of 75%.

• Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals, and we saw evidence to confirm this.

• The percentage of women aged 25-64 whose notes record that a cervical

  screening test has been performed in the preceding 5 years was 81% in line with the national average.

• Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

• We saw positive examples of joint working with midwives, health visitors and school nurses.

Updated 17 August 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people.

• The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population.

• The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and urgent appointments for those with enhanced needs.

• All patients over the age of 75 had a named GP.

Updated 17 August 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students).

• The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care.

• The practice was proactive in offering online services as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflects the needs for this age group.

Updated 17 August 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

• The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia.

• The practice carried out advance care planning for patients with dementia.

• The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

• The practice had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency where they may have been experiencing poor mental health.

• Staff had a good understanding of how to support patients with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 17 August 2016

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable.

• The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including homeless people, travellers and those with a learning disability.

• The practice offered longer appointments for patients with a learning disability.

• The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people.

• The practice informed vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

• Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.

• The practice provide a weekly in-house counselling service for patients with mental health issues to reduce waiting times. The service was flexible and could see urgent patients if required, the aim was to see all newly referred patients within three weeks.