Oak Tree Medical Centre

Updated 6 January 2022

Oak Tree Medical Centre is located at:

273-275 Green Lane

Seven Kings

Ilford

IG3 9TJ

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice is situated within the North East London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers Primary Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of approximately 17,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the sixth lowest decile (six of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 58% Asian, 25% White, 11% Black, 4% Mixed and 4% Other.

There is a team of nine GPs who provide cover at the practice. Two of the GPs are partners. Four of the GPs are long-term locums. There are 33 GP sessions offered at the practice each week. The practice has a team of nurses who provide 15 sessions per week. Twelve sessions per week are offered by the locum GPs. The GPs are supported at the practice by practice manager, deputy practice manager and a team of reception/administration staff.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered a consultation in the practice.

Extended access is provided locally by the hub, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by PELC.

Updated 6 January 2022

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Oak Tree Medical Centre. This included off-site searches of their clinical system and GP interviews on 11 November 2021, a site visit to the practice on 01 December 2021. 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

At our previous inspection on 8 November 2017, the practice was rated as Good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection:

This inspection was a focused inspection which opened up to a comprehensive inspection due to the review of Safe, Effective, Responsive and Well-led. CQC requires that where four key questions are inspected, all five must be looked at and therefore Caring was also inspected. The inspection was generated due to risk, as six complaints had been received by CQC regarding access to the practice.

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, in all key questions and good for all population groups.

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.
• Staff treated with patients with respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, access to the practice by telephone was an identified area of challenge.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

• Continue to review and improve the patient’s overall experience of accessing the practice by telephone to improve the patient experience.
• Continue to review and improve the patient’s overall experience of making an appointment and their level of satisfaction with the appointment (or appointments) offered to improve the patient experience as reflected in the GP Patient Survey.
• Continue to review and improve patient take up of childhood immunisations and cervical screening.
• Continue to embed the use of templates to record blood results where these are taken in secondary care.

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