The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

70 Norwood Road

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

70 Norwood Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB2 4EY (020) 8571 2182

Provided and run by:
The Southall Medical Centre

All Inspections

20 October 2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced inspection at 70 Norwood Road from 17-20 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring – good

Responsive – requires improvement

Well-led - good

Following our previous comprehensive inspection which took place on 8 January 2015 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions. The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for 70 Norwood Road on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities. This inspection was a comprehensive inspection including all key questions.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A short site visit.

Our findings

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 found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • 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 had focused on improving access to the service as levels of demand remained high at the time of the inspection. Patient survey feedback about access was in line with the national average.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Assure itself that it is prescribing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, antiplatelet therapy and anticoagulants to older patients in line with national guidelines.
  • Review its systems for managing test results to ensure these are clearly understood and do not increase the risk of delay.
  • Take action to improve patient experience in relation to access to the service.
  • Record verbal complaints and any associated action taken to ensure that learning is identified and good practice shared with the wider team.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care

8 January 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at 70 Norwood Road , also known as Southall Medical Centre, on 8 January 2015. The inspection took place over one day and was undertaken by a Lead inspector, a GP Specialist Advisor and a Practice Manager Specialist Advisor. We looked at care records, spoke with patients, members of the patient participation group (PPG) and staff including the management team.

Overall the practice is rated as ‘Good.’

We found the practice to be good for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services. It was good for providing services for older people; people with long term conditions; families, children and young people; working age people (including those recently retired and students), people whose circumstances make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health.

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

  • Systems including incident reporting protocols, safeguarding measures and infection control procedures were in place to keep patients safe.
  • Staff were appropriately qualified to deliver effective care and treatment in line with professional guidelines.
  • Patients said that staff were welcoming, caring and treated them with dignity and respect and the GPs involved them in decisions about their treatment and care.
  • The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the Patient Participation Group (PPG). Most patients were satisfied with access to the service and the appointment system. However, some patients fed back that the practice’s opening hours could be improved.

There were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the provider should:

  • Arrange for the Health Care Assistant to be trained to Level 2 for safeguarding children.
  • Ensure availability of an automated external defibrillator (AED) or undertake a risk assessment if a decision is made to not have an AED on-site.
  • Record the vaccine fridge temperatures for the minimum and maximum temperatures in addition to the actual temperature.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice