Ilford Medical Centre

Updated 17 August 2016

Ilford Medical Centre is located in Ilford in north east London. It is one of the 47 member GP practices in NHS Redbridge CCG.

The practice serves an ethnically diverse population, and is located in the fourth more deprived decile of areas in England. At 78 years, male life expectancy is lower than the England average of 79 years. At 83 years, female life expectancy is the same as the England average.

The practice has approximately 12,600 registered patients. It has fewer patients aged 45 years and above compared with the England average, and more in the 25 to 39 years and 0 to 14 years age ranges than the England average. Services are provided by the Ilford Medical Centre partnership under a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England. The partnership is made up of five GPs.

The practice is in purpose built health care premises owned by the partnership. Patient areas and facilities are accessible to wheelchair users. There is no patient car park.

The five partners together with four salaried GPs provide the equivalent of 6.8 whole time GPs. There are five female and four male GPs. There are two part time nurses (1.2 whole time equivalent or WTE) and two part time healthcare assistants (0.92 WTE). Clinical staff are supported by a team of receptionist, secretarial and administrative staff led by a full time practice manager and a part time assistant practice manager (0.85 WTE).

The practice is an accredited GP training and teaching practice and one of the partners is an approved trainer.

The practice’s opening times are:

• 8.00am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 6.30pm, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

• 8.00am to 1.00pm on Thursday

Outside these times patients are directed to an out of hours GP services.

Appointments are available at the following times:

• 8.00am to 12 noon, 3.30pm to 6.00pm and 6.30pm to 7.00pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday

• 8.00am to 12.00pm and 3.30pm to 6.00pm on Tuesday

• 8.00am to 12.00pm on Thursday

• 8.30am to 10.30am on Saturday

Ilford Medical Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the following regulated activities at 61 Cleveland Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1EE: Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Updated 17 August 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Ilford Medical Centre on 22 April 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 by their GP.
• Information about services 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.
• The practice had improved the ease with which patients were able to make an appointment with a GP. The practice recognised still further improvement was required and had a robust action plan in place to achieve this. Urgent appointments were 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.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Consider further ways of meeting the needs patients with long term conditions given the comparatively high exception reporting rates in some clinical domains.

• Continue to monitor and develop telephone access and appointment availability so that improvement is sustained and patients’ satisfaction with the service overall is further increased.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 17 August 2016

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.

• Diabetes indicators compared well with CCG and national averages. The practice offered insulin initiation.

• 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.

Updated 17 August 2016

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

• There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations.

• The percentage of women aged 25-64 who had a cervical screening test performed in the preceding 5 years was 83%, which was similar to the England average of 82%.

• Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. It was the practice’s policy to assess all children under 12 presenting as an emergency the same day.

• The practice had held parent education sessions, led by a parentologist, to increase new parents’ confidence and knowledge.

Updated 17 August 2016

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, including phlebotomy for these patients.

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

• Each person over the age of 75 years had a named GP to ensure continuity of care.

Updated 17 August 2016

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.

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

Updated 17 August 2016

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

• 89% of patients diagnosed with dementia had their care reviewed in a face to face meeting in the last 12 months, which is comparable to the CCG average of 83% and the national average of 84%.

• The practice’s patient outcomes for mental health indicators were comparable with national averages. The percentage of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and other psychoses:

  • Who have a comprehensive agreed care plan documented in the record in the preceding 12 months was 91%

  • Whose alcohol consumption has been recorded in the preceding 12 month was 93% (CCG 91%, England 90%).

• The practice took a proactive approach to dementia identification, for example all new patients registering with the practice were risk assessed.

• The local psychological therapies service provided counselling at the practice once a week improving access to this service.

Staff had a good understanding of how to support patients with mental health needs and dementia.

Updated 17 August 2016

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 housebound people, those with a learning disability, and those at the end of their life.

• The practice offered longer appointments for patients with a learning disability.

• The practice regularly worked with other health care professionals in the case management of vulnerable patients.

• The practice was working towards Gold Standard Framework (GSF) silver accreditation as part of improving care for patients at the end of their life. GSF is a systematic, evidence based approach to optimising care for all patients approaching the end of life, delivered by generalist frontline care providers.

• The practice informed vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations, for example Redbridge foodbank.

• Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.