Swanswell Medical Centre

Updated 10 January 2018

Swanswell Medical Practice is located at 370 Gospel Lane, Acocks Green, Birmingham B27 7AL. Further information about Swanswell Medical Centre can be found by accessing the practice website at www.swanswellmedicalcentre.co.uk.

The practice is part of the NHS Birmingham Cross City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). CCGs are groups of general practices that work together to plan and design local health services in England. They do this by 'commissioning' or buying health and care services.

The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide primary medical services. The practice has a general medical service (GMS) contract with NHS England. Under this contract the practice is required to provide essential services to patients who are ill and includes chronic disease management and end of life care.

The practice is located in an urban area of Birmingham close to Solihull with a list size of approximately 6500 patients. Approximately two thirds of the patients registered live within Birmingham and one third in Solihull. Based on data available from Public Health England, the area covered by the practice has higher levels of deprivation than the national average. It is within the 20% most deprived areas nationally.

The patient population is slightly younger than the national average with a higher proportion of patients under the age of 35 years than the national average.

Practice staff consists of three partners (all male) who work a total of 20 GP sessions each week. There are three nurses (one is an advanced nurse practitioner), one health care assistant, a practice manager and a team of administrative staff.

Swanswell Medical Practice is open from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday with the exception of Wednesday when it closes at 1pm for the afternoon.

Telephone lines closed between 1pm and 2pm. When the practice is closed services are provided by an out of hours provider (BADGER). The practice does not operate any extended opening hours.

The practice is a training practice for qualified doctors training to become GPs.

Updated 10 January 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Swanswell Medical Centre on 6 October 2016. The overall rating for the practice was requires improvement with requires improvement ratings in safe and well-led services and good ratings in effective, caring and responsive services. The full comprehensive report on the October 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Swanswell Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 6 December 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 6 October 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice had made significant improvements to ensure that all patients requiring repeat prescriptions received appropriate reviews by their GP.
• The practice monitored all blank prescriptions to ensure a clear audit trail.

• The practice had carried out necessary health and safety risk assessments including fire risk assessments and taken any necessary actions.
• The practice had made improvements to ensure all staff were aware of any significant events that had occurred and any learning that had taken place.
• The practice had also made improvements to ensure all patients were informed of incidents when it was necessary.
• Since our previous inspection, the practice had reviewed and updated a number of policies and procedures. For example, repeat prescribing to ensure effective processing of prescriptions and the staff training policy to enable more clarity on what the practice identified as mandatory training.
• The practice had also made improvements to its system to monitor staff training levels.
• All staff had received a recent appraisal and had a development plan in place.
• Staff recorded outcomes from multidisciplinary meetings in patients’ notes and shared care plans with patients to give them the opportunity to comment.
• The practice had reviewed its storage of clinical waste to ensure sharps bins were stored appropriately.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 10 January 2018

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Updated 10 January 2018