Bearwood Medical Centre

Updated 5 December 2017

Bearwood Medical centre provides primary medical services to approximately 4200 patients in the local community. The practice has a General Medical Services contract (GMS) with NHS England. A GMS contract ensures practices provide essential services for people who are sick as well as, for example, chronic disease management and end of life care. The practice also provides some directed enhanced services such as childhood vaccination and immunisation schemes.

The practice is run by a lead female GP (provider) with the support of long term locums. The nursing team consists of two practice nurses. The non-clinical team consists of administrative and reception staff and a practice manager.

The practice serves a higher than average population of women aged 25-39 years. The area served has higher levels of deprivation compared to England as a whole and ranked at four out of ten, with ten being the least deprived.

The practice opening times are Monday from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. When the practice is closed, primary medical services are provided by Primecare, an out of hours service provider and the NHS 111 service and information about these services are available on the practice website.

The practice had recently joined a group of general practices to set up access ‘hubs’ across the locality so patients could access appointments during the evening between 6.30pm and 8pm and on Saturday and Sunday mornings. These appointments could be booked in advance by the surgery for patients who were unable to attend the practice during the week and when the practice is closed, the telephone answering system directs patients to the number to call if they require an appointment during the hub opening hours.

The practice is part of NHS Sandwell & West Birmingham CCG which has 91 member practices. The CCG serve communities across the borough, covering a population of approximately 559,400 people. (A CCG is an NHS Organisation that brings together local GPs and experienced health care professionals to take on commissioning responsibilities for local health services).

Updated 5 December 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We first inspected Bearwood Medical Centre on 21 September 2016 as part of our comprehensive inspection programme. The overall rating for the practice was good; however we identified a breach in the responsive key question. The full comprehensive report on the September 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Bearwood Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk. During the inspection we found the practice was in breach of legal requirements. The breaches related to reasonable adjustments that had not been made in line with the Equality Act 2010. Following the inspection the practice wrote to us to say what they would do to meet the regulations.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 30 October 2017 to confirm that the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breach in regulation we identified in our previous inspection. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall we found improvements had been made to the concerns raised at the previous inspection and as a result of the inspection findings the practice is now rated as good for the responsive key question and continued to be rated as good overall.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Since the previous inspection the practice had completed an assessment to assess compliance with the Equality Act (2010). An action plan was in place and reasonable adjustments had been made.
• The practice had installed a hearing loop to support patients with hearing difficulties and alerts were added to patients’ records to advise all staff if patients needed extra support.
• Low level signage had been implemented to assist patients in wheelchairs.
• The practice had purchased chairs with arms to support patients with mobility difficulties.
• A doorbell had been fitted to alert the reception staff that a patient required assistance to enter the premises.
• At the previous inspection we were told that the practice was waiting for funding to make improvements to the premises and surrounding area to assist patients with mobility difficulties. At this inspection we found funding still had not been received, but we saw evidence to confirm the clinical commissioning group (CCG) were aware of the improvements required and the practice was part of a future strategy plan for funding.
• Since the last inspection, the practice had joined a group of general practices to set up access ‘hubs’ across the locality so patients could access appointments during the evening between 6.30pm and 8pm and on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

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Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 5 December 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns for responsive identified at our previous inspection on 21 September 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group.

Updated 5 December 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns for responsive identified at our previous inspection on 21 September 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group.

Updated 5 December 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns for responsive identified at our previous inspection on 21 September 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group.

Updated 5 December 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns for responsive identified at our previous inspection on 21 September 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group.

Updated 5 December 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns for responsive identified at our previous inspection on 21 September 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group.

Updated 5 December 2017

The provider had resolved the concerns for responsive identified at our previous inspection on 21 September 2016 which applied to everyone using this practice, including this population group.