Sparkhill Primary Care Centre

Updated 28 July 2022

Sparkhill Primary Care Centre, 856 Stratford Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham. B11 4BW is the location used by Birmingham Smartcare Limited, a GP federation that provides a range of services to their member practices and to the wider local population. Birmingham Smartcare Limited was formed in 2016 initially to provide extended access provision to member practices. The premises are shared with three other GP practices.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities: Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

At the time of inspection, the services being provided by Birmingham Smartcare Limited included:

Extended access service, located at Greet Medical Practice, 50 Percy Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham, B11 3ND. The extended access service is open to member practices between 6.30pm and 8pm, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6.30pm on Saturdays and 10am to 1pm on Sundays. The service is provided under an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) contract, a contract with NHS England for the provision of primary care services. The service is mainly staffed by GPs from the member practices.

Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), also located at Greet Medical Practice, is open daily (including weekends) between 8am and 8pm. The Urgent Treatment Centre has been commissioned by Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group to provide services to the whole population. The UTC contract is due to end on the 30 June 2022. The UTC is staffed by locum GPs and Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs).

COVID-19 Vaccination Centre, located at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre. This service is currently available for a few days each month to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to the whole population. The service has been running since December 2020.

Central Prescription Service, located at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre. This service is provided for member practices. Patients from member practices that have signed up to the service can call a dedicated line to order repeat prescriptions and discuss medicine queries. The prescription service is run by a team of pharmacists supported by administration staff and call handlers. The service runs Monday to Friday 8am to 6.30pm.

Central Docman Service, located at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre. This service is provided for member practices. A team of trained administrators manages any clinical correspondence for the member practices that have signed up for the service. The service runs Monday to Friday 8am to 6.30pm.

Birmingham Smartcare Limited is led by five Clinical Directors from member practices (two of which are Executive Directors). They directly employ a small team of staff to manage the services, these include a Chief Operations Officer, a Deputy Operations Officer, a Service Operations Lead, a Service Manager and a Service Co-ordinator. Other staff are recruited as bank staff or on a locum basis. The leadership team is based at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre.

Birmingham Smartcare Limited also runs the Central Primary Care Network (PCN) for their 11 member practices and employ PCN staff including a care co-ordinator, diabetes lead, and mental health lead. PCNs are wider networks of GP practices that work together to address local priorities in patient care.

Sparkhill Primary Care Centre is located in a relatively deprived area and covers an ethnically diverse population. Information published by Public Health England shows deprivation within the local population area as in the second lowest decile (two out of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

As part of this inspection we visited the services provided by Birmingham Smartcare Limited delivered at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre and Greet Medical Practice.

Updated 28 July 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre on 27 June 2022 as part of our inspection programme and to provide a rating for the service. The service has not previously been inspected.

At this inspection we found:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe. Policies and procedures were in place to support the delivery of safe services.
• There were effective systems in place to protect patients from avoidable harm.
• The practice had systems and processes in place to minimise the risk of infection.
• Staff received appropriate training and guidance to deal with medical emergencies. Appropriate medicines and equipment were available in the event of a medical emergency.
• There were systems in place for identifying, acting and learning from incidents and complaints.
• We found the provider had implemented systems for monitoring recruitment checks and staff training, however they needed strengthening.
• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Information was routinely shared with a patient’s usual GP to support the safe care and treatment and continuity of care.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• Governance arrangements supported the delivery of safe and effective care.
• The service demonstrated that it was adaptable and effective in meeting local priorities and the needs of the local population.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Improve oversight of recruitment checks undertaken by external agencies.
• Improve systems for monitoring staff training to demonstrate that staff have completed key training requirements, as determined by the provider.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care