Oakeswell Health Centre

Updated 4 January 2017

Oakeswell Health Centre is located on the corner of Brunswick Park Road in Wednesbury, Sandwell. It is a purpose built health centre with consulting rooms on the ground floor and office accommodation and a meeting room on the upper floor. There is easy access to the building and disabled facilities are provided. There is limited car parking on site for patients.

The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England and forms part of NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham.

There are four GPs working at the practice, all of whom are partners. Three of the partners are male and one female. The practice used locum GPs occasionally. There are four female nurses, one of whom is a part time nurse practitioner. The three practice nurses are part time and there is a part time health care assistant. There is a full time practice manager, an assistant practice manager and a team of administrative staff.

The practice opening times are 8am until 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available 8.30 to 12pm and 3pm to 6pm on Monday and Wednesday, 8am to 12pm and 3pm to 6pm Tuesday and Friday and 9am to 12pm, 3 to 6pm Thursday.

Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to call  the 111 service who will contact the out of hours provider Primecare, call an ambulance or suggest they attend Accident and Emergency. There are 9,728 patients on the practice list. The majority of patients are white British with a high number of elderly patients and patients with chronic disease prevalence. On the Index of Multiple Deprivation the practice is in the second  most deprived decile. This is a teaching practice for doctors training to be GPs.

Updated 4 January 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Oakeswell Health Centre on 23rd September 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about the services provided and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 4 January 2017

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.

• Specialist clinics were held for patients with heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cancer and those taking ant-coagulant medication.

• A smoking cessation service was offered in house by practice nurses.

• Performance for diabetes related indicators was better or comparable with the national average. For example the percentage of patients with diabetes, on the register, in whom the last blood pressure reading was 140/80 mmHg or less in the period April 2014 to March 2025 was 81%. (National average 78%)

• Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed.

• 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 worked closely with the Medicines Management Team from the clinical commissioning group and provided data through audits to improve the quality of prescribing.

Updated 4 January 2017

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

• There were comprehensive 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 and those who did not attend secondary care appointments. There were 85 Children on the child protection register and details were highlighted on records, with alerts for staff and clinicians. A child exploitation screening tool was in use by the practice staff and these vulnerable children were regularly discussed at the monthly Primary Healthcare Team Meetings.

• Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisation programmes achieving up to 95% in 2014/15 the same as the clinical commissioning group (CCG). These were provided both at immunisation clinics and by appointment.

• 81% of women aged 25-64 were recorded as having had a cervical screening test in the preceding 5 years. This compared to a CCG average of 80% and a national average of 82%.

• 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 and health visitors.

• All parents or guardians calling with concerns about a child under the age of 10 were offered a same day appointment.

• Young people were signposted or referred to appropriate services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Counselling services e.g. Brook Advisory and Eating Disorder services.

• The Practice offered a weekly baby clinic on one morning and one afternoon session which offered choice to patients and avoided the school run.

Updated 4 January 2017

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. Each patient had a named doctor who saw them for appointments and followed up on test results which older patients told us they found very valuable.

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

• Practice staff visited a number of care homes in the area to provide ward rounds, with staff and managers and provide advice on medicines management.

• There were patients on the Avoiding Unplanned Admissions register all of whom had a care plan. In conjunction with meeting care home managers rates of admission had decreased.

• The practice worked with the Complex Nursing team and Community Respiratory Team to manage acute exacerbations of long term illnesses for the older population.

• Integrated Primary Care team meetings were held on a monthly basis, where patients were selected and reviewed along with palliative care patients. Those who attended included the falls team, palliative care nurses, District Nurses, Community Matrons, ICARE team and health visiting team.

• The practice referred to a number of charitable organisations for assessment and support of patients’ social needs.

Updated 4 January 2017

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. This included pre-bookable appointments from 8am and an on-call doctor available until 6.30pm.

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

• Health checks were available for patients aged between 40-74years.

• Telephone triage and telephone consultations were offered daily. There was f lexible timing for telephone call backs from the patient’s own GP.

• There were five local services that patients could access for blood tests and they were offered the service at the practice if they were unable to attend elsewhere.

Updated 4 January 2017

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

• 95% of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses had a comprehensive, agreed care plan documented in the record in the preceding 12 months. This compared with a clinical commissioning group average of 86% and a national average of 88%.

• 99% of patients with mental health conditions had their alcohol consumption recorded in the preceding 12 months. This compared well with the CCG average of 89% and the national average of 89%.

• The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations and patients were given contact details for the crisis team and the surgery bypass number.

• The practice offered direct access to counselling at the surgery and referral to the mental health teams.

• Daily appointments were offered from 08.30am for people with anxiety or social phobia who were unable to wait in a full waiting room.

Updated 4 January 2017

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.Alerts for direct access to GPs or nursing staff were added to records of these patients and there was a dedicated bypass telephone number available.

• The practice undertook health checks for patients with learning disabilities at an extended appointment when a nurse and a GP wrote an individual care plan.

• The practice regularly worked with other health care professionals in the case management of vulnerable patients including hospice staff, palliative care nurses and district nurses. This included multidisciplinary integrated care meetings to ensure patients received safe, effective and responsive care.

• Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. We saw a folder on the practice EMIS system with all the information staff required to carry out their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours. This included a child sexual exploitation screening tool. Case conferences were also recorded in this folder so that staff could quickly check about the current position regarding a vulnerable patient.

• Practice staff identified patients who were carers. A carers’ information board was maintained in the waiting room. All carers were offered the influenza vaccination.

• The practice spoke with local pharmacies with regards to arranging blister packs for vulnerable patients.

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• Doctors worked alongside ICARES and several befriending services and sign posted people to Agewell (a local charity), and local food banks and churches.

• Home visits were available if the patient could not attend appointments at the surgery.

• There were interpreter services available which could be booked for specific appointment for patients who did not speak English as a first language