The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

The Southall Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Southall Medical Centre, 223 Lady Margaret Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 2PT (020) 8574 4381

Provided and run by:
The Southall Medical Centre

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Southall Medical Centre on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about The Southall Medical Centre, you can give feedback on this service.

03/11/2016

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 20 January 2015 at The Southall Medical Centre. At that inspection the practice was rated good overall, but as requires improvement for some aspects of providing safe services. The full comprehensive report on the 20 January 2015 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Southall Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was a desk-based review carried out on 3 November 2016 to check 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 20 January 2015. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice remains rated as good. Following the desk-top review we found the practice to be good for providing safe services.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • Patients with long-term conditions were reviewed by practice nurses under the supervision of doctors and within clinical protocol. 
  • An automated external defibrillator (AED) (used to attempt to restart a person’s heart in an emergency) was available and maintained as part of the  emergency equipment schedule.
  • A comprehensive locum doctor information pack was available which supported safe and effective care.
  • There was a process in place to ensure patient safety alerts had been acted upon.
  • All staff had received safeguarding children training to a level relevant to their role.
  • Medicines requiring refrigeration were stored in line with guidance.
  • The practice continued to monitor access to the practice by telephone through surveys and patient feedback which had resulted in increasing the number of staff answering the telephone at peak times and initiating patient queuing to the telephony system. However, the current national GP patient survey showed only 29% of patients found it easy to get through on the telephone which was lower than the local average of 67% and the national average of 73%.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

  • Continue to monitor telephone access to the practice.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

20 January 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Southall Medical Centre on 20 January 2015. The practice also provides services at a branch surgery at 70 Norwood Road, Southall. Patients registered with the practice may attend either surgery. On this occasion we inspected the main surgery and overall we rated the service at this location as ‘Good’.

Specifically, we found the practice to be good for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. The practice was also providing good care for older people; families, children and young people; people of working age; people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable; and, people experiencing poor mental health. The practice required improvement for providing safe services and people with long-term conditions.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice had effective systems in place to manage risks associated with staff recruitment, infection control, child protection and medical emergencies.
  • The practice understood the needs of the population and had developed the service and skills of the staff team to meet patients’ needs. We found that care for long-term conditions such as diabetes was being managed effectively in the community and care was provided in partnership with other specialist and community services.
  • Patient satisfaction scores were in line with local averages for being treated with dignity, respect and the kindness of staff. Twenty-five patients completed Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards about the service before our inspection. All of these were positive about the service and staff.
  • Feedback was more mixed about access to appointments and several patients we spoke with reported difficulty getting through to the practice by telephone. The practice was aware of the issue and had increased the number of staff answering the telephones at busy times.
  • We found that staff were well supported. Staff told us the practice was clinically and managerially well-led with opportunities to reflect on practice and improve.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider must:

  • Ensure that a senior member of the clinical team has effective oversight of patient reviews and health checks. These were being both carried out and signed off by the healthcare assistant.

In addition the provider should:

  • Have an automated external defibrillator on the premises for use in an emergency or carry out a risk assessment showing why this equipment is unnecessary in this practice.
  • Review the content of the locum pack to ensure that any locum doctor unfamiliar with the practice has access to key information about practice policy and procedure
  • Continue to monitor telephone access to the practice at peak times of day

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice