We carried out a review of the data available to us about Oakeswell Health Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Oakeswell Health Centre, you can give feedback on this service.
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.
Chief Inspector of General Practice
Oakeswell Health Centre is a general practice located in Wednesbury in the West Midlands. It is a training practice for fully qualified doctors to gain experience and higher qualifications in general practice and family medicine.
On the day of our inspection we spoke with nine patients who were all very complimentary about the care and treatment they received. They told us that all staff were welcoming, respectful and caring. All patients we spoke with told us that the appointment system for non urgent appointments needed to be improved. We reviewed 39 patient comment cards from our Care Quality Commission (CQC) comments box which we had asked to be placed in the practice prior to our inspection. There were 36 out of 39 patients who were extremely complimentary about the service. Eight patients gave negative comments about the length of time to get a non urgent appointment. All patients told us that emergency, urgent appointments were easily accessible for patients.
We found that the service was safe. Patients were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. Performance was consistent over time and there were effective arrangements in place for reporting safety incidents. There were robust systems in place for safeguarding adults and children.
We found that the service was effective. Patients received care and treatment which achieved good outcomes, promoted a good quality of life and was based on the best available evidence.
We found that the staff treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Two patients told us that they felt there was not enough opportunity for confidentiality when at the reception desk. Staff confirmed that if a patient needed to discuss a confidential matter, they could ask to discuss this in a private room away from reception.
We found that the service was responsive. Services were organised to meet the diverse needs of the patients. The practice was aware of improvements needed to the appointments system for non urgent appointments and was regularly monitoring how it worked. New initiatives were being trialled to enable patients to have a non urgent appointment to meet their needs.
We found that the service was well led. The leadership, management and governance supported learning and innovation and promoted an open and fair culture. We saw that the processes in place provided assurance that high quality care was being delivered.