Background to this inspection
Updated
8 May 2019
Hillingdon Health Centre is a well-established GP practice is located in Freezeland Way, Uxbridge, UB10 9QF, situated in the Hillingdon CCG area. The surgery has good transport links and there is a pharmacy located nearby.
The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic & screening procedures, maternity & midwifery services and treatment of disease disorder & Injury.
The practice provides primary medical services to approximately 7,500 patients living in the Hillingdon area. The practice holds a General Medical Services Contract, the most common form of GP contract between NHS England and general practices. The practice provides a range of essential, additional and enhanced services including chronic disease management, cervical screening, childhood immunisations, contraception and family planning.
The practice operates from a purpose-built building owned and managed by the GP Partners. The building is set over two floors with all clinical areas located on the ground floor where there are five consultation rooms and two nurse treatment rooms. The reception and waiting area are on the ground floor with wheelchair access to the entrance of the building. There are disabled toilet facilities and on site pay and display car parking facilities with designated disabled spaces.
The practice population is ethnically diverse and has a similar patient age distribution as the national average. There are slightly less than the national average number of male and female patients between 20 and 29 years of age and slightly higher than average number of patients 80 years plus. The practice area is rated in the second least deprived decile of the national Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). People living in more deprived areas tend to have greater need for health services.
The practice team comprises of two male GP partners and three female salaried GPs, who collectively work a total of 28 clinical sessions per week. They are supported by two-part time practice nurses, a healthcare assistant, practice manager, reception manager and eight administration staff.
The opening hours are 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Consultation times in the morning are from 8.30am to 11am and in the afternoon from 2pm to 5.30pm. Extended hour appointments are offered from 7:30am to 8am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and from 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Mondays. Pre-bookable appointments can be booked two weeks in advance. The out of hours services are provided by an alternative provider. The details of the out-of-hours service are communicated in a recorded message accessed by calling the practice when it is closed and on the practice website.
Updated
8 May 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hillingdon Health Centre on 28 February 2019 as part of our inspection programme. The practice was previously inspected on 27 October 2017 and rated good overall. Although we we found no breaches of regulations, we found areas where the provider could make improvements. Specifically, we said the practice should arrange for staff to undertake basic life support training on an annual basis, continue to identify and support more patients who are carers and continue to encourage patients to join the patient participation group.
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 and good for all population groups.
We rated the practice as good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well led services because:
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
- The practice had a culture which drove high quality sustainable care.
We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe services because:
- The practice did not always follow guidance for the safe management of medicines. Specifically, patients prescribed with a medicine used to treat a mental health condition had not had blood tests within recommended timescales.
- Arrangements to manage prescription stationery did not include a process to track the use of blank prescription stationery throughout the practice so that theft or misuse could be identified.
The areas where the provider must make improvements are:
- Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way.
(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Follow through with plans to update safeguarding training for clinical staff in line with national guidelines.
- Continue to ensure portable appliance testing and health and safety risk assessments are carried out within recommended timeframes.
- Continue to improve the uptake for childhood immunisations to achieve the national target of 90% or above in all four indicators.
- Continue with efforts to improve the uptake for cervical screening to achieve the national target of 80%.
- Improve the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.
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