Lodge Road Surgery

Updated 20 April 2022

Lodge Road Surgery is located in Sandwell:

Lodge Road

Smethwick

West Midlands

B67 7LU

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The practice is situated within the Black Country and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a population of about 5,617 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Information published by Public Health England shows deprivation within the practice population group is in the second lowest decile (two of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 41% White, with a further 59% from Black, Asian, mixed or other non-white ethnic groups

The practice team include a GP clinical director, a part time salaried GP, a locum, two practice nurses and a healthcare assistant. The practice is supported by two non-clinical partners, including a practice manager and a team of administrative and reception staff.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations.

Out of hours services are provided by West Midlands Ambulance Service. These are available by contacting NHS 111.

Updated 20 April 2022

We carried out an announced inspection at Lodge Road Surgery on 3 March 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Ratings for each key question

Safe - Good

Effective - Good

Caring - Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led – Good

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection as part of our inspection programme and included:

• The safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions

How we carried out the inspection

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• 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 have rated this practice as Good overall.

We found that:

• There were clearly defined and embedded systems, processes and practices in place to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• 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.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The practice continually reviewed and monitored the effectiveness of their services.
• The practice had comprehensive management and governance structures in place to oversee and monitor services and identify where further improvements were needed.
• The culture of the practice and the way it was led and managed drove the delivery and improvement of high-quality, person-centred care. Teams worked together to help deliver improvements, in particular to improve the patient experience.
• Leaders demonstrated they had the capacity and skills to deliver high quality, sustainable care.
• The practice was consistent in their approach to continuously improve services, work collaboratively and to develop systems and shared learning to make improvements
• There was a strong emphasis on learning and sharing outcomes with the whole team and external organisations to promote best practice. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised. All learning was shared with staff regularly.
• 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:

• Continue to increase the uptake of childhood immunisations.
• Continue to increase the uptake for cervical, breast and bowel cancer screening.
• Continue to improve patient satisfaction in relation to patient survey results.

We found an area of outstanding practice:

• Lodge Road Surgery continually strived to improve services. Leaders were knowledgeable about the challenges faced and demonstrated a commitment to achieve outcomes and tackle health inequalities for their patients. At the time of our inspection the practice had identified patients who were digitally excluded and were supporting patients by providing digital literacy workshops. The practice had introduced new coding to identify digital exclusion and support patients by providing training to build confidence and reduce barriers in accessing the service.

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