Springfield Medical Practice

Updated 13 March 2019

Springfield Medical Practice is situated in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham, within a purpose built medical practice. The practice population is approximately 3065 patients and has a practice population that is in line with local and national averages in terms of age. Approximately 74% of the practice population identify as Black, Minority, Ethnic (BME).

The level of deprivation in the area according to the deprivation decile is one out of ten (The Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015 is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas (or neighbourhoods) in England.

Springfield Medical Practice is led by two GP partners (one female and one male) who are supported by a salaried GP (Male) and a practice nurse. The practice manager is supported by a supervisor and deputy supervisor and a team of administration and reception staff. All non-clinical staff are employed on a part-time basis.

The practice’s opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am until 12noon, then between 1pm and 6.30pm except Wednesdays and Thursdays when the practice closes at 1pm. Patients can access extended hours appointments on weekdays and at weekends between 8am and 8pm at local hubs through the My Healthcare federation.

Appointments are available throughout the day from 9am until 6pm on Mondays to Fridays, except Wednesdays and Thursdays when the practice closes at 1pm. Patients can access the practice on Thursday afternoons if they are attending specific clinics being held that day. However, the telephone lines are closed. Telephone lines are covered by SouthDoc when the practice is closed within normal working hours and calls are automatically diverted to the out of hours service outside of these times. The practice’s out of hours service is provided by Birmingham and District General Emergency Rooms (BADGER).

The practice provides NHS primary health care services for patients registered with the practice and holds a Primary Medical Service (PMS) contract with the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Springfield Medical Practice is registered with CQC to provide five regulated activities associated with primary medical services, which are: treatment of disease, disorder and injury; family planning; maternity and midwifery; diagnostic and screening procedures and surgical procedures.

Updated 13 March 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Springfield Medical Practice on 5 February 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

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.

We rated the practice as Requires Improvement for providing effective services because:

• The practice was unable to demonstrate that they had proactively taken action to address lower than local and national average cancer screening rates.
• The practice demonstrated that it had taken action to address lower than average childhood immunisation and cancer screening rates. Unverified data provided by the practice indicated that cervical screening had improved but they were unable to demonstrate that other cancer screening rates or immunisations had improved.

We rated the practice as Good for providing safe, caring, responsive and well-led services because:

• Systems in place to safeguard patients were well established. The practice demonstrated that they had identified risks and had generally taken action to mitigate these.
• Patient satisfaction relating to involvement in care and treatment was higher than local and national averages.
• The practice demonstrated that they had taken action to address lower than local and national average patient satisfaction scores relating to access to care and treatment. Unverified data provided by the practice indicated that some satisfaction scores had increased.
• The practice demonstrated that they had reacted and taken action in a timely fashion to complaints and significant events.

Although we found no breaches, the areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider how risks within the practice are mitigated whilst actions identified are ongoing.
• Ensure that documentation relating to safety checks of emergency equipment are completed.
• Review processes for identifying and supporting carers to ensure that these are proactive.
• Continue to review systems and processes to ensure appointments run on time to reduce waiting times for patients.
• Review and monitor systems for communication to ensure that they are operating as intended.
• Continue to review proactive ways of encouraging patients to attend cancer screening and childhood immunisations.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 13 March 2019

Updated 13 March 2019

Updated 13 March 2019

Updated 13 March 2019

Updated 13 March 2019

Updated 13 March 2019