Freuchen Medical Centre

Background to this inspection

Updated 12 September 2017

Freuchen Medical Centre is a GP practice which provides primary medical care through a GMS contract to approximately 5,700 patients in the Harlesden area of west London. It provides a number of services such as minor surgery and phlebotomy as well as nurse-led clinics. It is situated in an ethnically diverse inner city area with high levels of deprivation. One third of the patients in the practice have long term conditions such as heart disease and diabetes and there are a high number of patients with poor mental health. There was a higher than average number of patients aged between 25 and 54 years with a lower number of older patients above 55 years old.

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

There are two female GP partners and one male GP partner (18 clinical sessions), one long-term locum GP (two clinical sessions), a full time female practice nurse, a part-time advanced nurse practitioner (three sessions), a health care assistant, a practice manager and six reception/administration staff.

The practice is open between 8am and 6:30pm Monday to Friday with the exception of Wednesday when the practice closes at 1pm. Appointments are available from 8am to 12pm and 3:30pm to 6pm daily. Extended hours appointments are offered on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday until 7:30pm. GPs have opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients and employ the services of an out of hours GP provider to fulfil this role.

Information within the practice and in the practice leaflet advertises telephone contact details for patients to call if they have medical problems after the surgery is closed or at weekends.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 12 September 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Freuchen Medical Centre on 1 November 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement. The full comprehensive report on the November 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Freuchen Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 11 August 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 1 November 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

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Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

The practice had made improvements in respect of the arrangements to respond to emergencies and major incidents.
Data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework showed patient outcomes had improved since our previous inspection.
There was evidence that appraisals and personal development plans had been implemented for all staff.
Information had been displayed in languages appropriate for the local community and translation services were advertised in the patient waiting room. Facilities had been updated to meet the needs of mothers, babies and those patients who are hard of hearing and privacy curtains were available in all consultation rooms.
The practice had drawn up an action plan to improve patient satisfaction with the service.

The areas of practice where the provider needs to make further improvements are:

The provider should:

Continue to improve cervical screening uptake and childhood immunisation rates to bring them in line with local and national averages.
Continue to monitor and act on feedback from patients.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice