The Acocks Green Medical Centre

Updated 8 November 2023

The Acocks Green Medical Centre is located in Acocks Green in Birmingham. The registered address for the practice is at:

999 Warwick Road

Acocks Green

Birmingham

West Midlands

B27 6QJ

The practice registered under a new provider in July 2020. The change of ownership took place during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The clinical and managerial leadership team worked hard to overcome the challenges presented by the pandemic and as new owners to develop a resilient and sustainable service for its patients.

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 NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) Integrated Care System (ICS) and provides services to patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices as independent contractors and NHS England to provide general medical services to its patient population of approximately 5,361.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices called Birmingham SmartCare which is a GP Federation in Birmingham which is owned and run by local primary care clinicians working together to improve health and wellbeing.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (one 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 57.2% White, 31.9% Asian, 4.8% Black, 4.5% Mixed, and 1.6% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more male patients registered at the practice compared to females.

The provider is a partnership GP practice, which registered with the CQC in July 2020. The practice clinical team consists of two GP partners (male), salaried GPs and a long-term locum GP. The clinical team also includes a nurse practitioner, practice nurse, a health care assistant and a medicines management team. The clinical staff are supported by a practice manager, and administration and reception staff. Staff are employed either full or part time hours to meet the needs of patients.

The practice is open between 8.30am and 6pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Extended hours access is provided at the practice on Tuesdays when the practice is open between 8.30am and 8pm. The practice does not provide an out-of-hours service to its patients but has alternative local arrangements for patients to be seen when the practice is closed. Extended access is also provided locally by local hub arrangements, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 8 November 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Acocks Green Medical Centre on 2 August 2023. The practice is rated as requires improvement overall.

Safe – Requires Improvement

Effective – Requires Improvement

Caring – Good

Responsive – Requires Improvement

Well-led – Good

Following our previous inspection on 5 July 2022, the practice was rated requires improvement overall but good for providing caring services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Acocks Green Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up breaches of regulation from a previous inspection.

The focus of inspection included:

• A review of all key questions
• Follow up of breaches of regulations identified in previous inspection.

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 site visit.
• Speaking with patients and members of the practice’s patient participation group (PPG).

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 mainly kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• The practice had a system for recording and disseminating actions carried out as a result of significant events.
• The practice had taken appropriate action to support and protect patients identified as at risk from harm.
• Take steps to ensure that families of patients identified as at risk are linked on the patient information system.
• Monitor the completion of recruitment interview forms when used to inform decisions of employment.
• Improve the format of the infection prevention and control audit documentation to clearly identify the outcome, standard reached and any action required.
• Implement effective systems to promote, monitor and improve the uptake of cancer screening programmes
• Continue to improve systems to promote the uptake of childhood immunisations.
• Introduce effective systems to monitor the impact of any actions put in place to improve the uptake of preventative treatments and screening.
• Actively monitor and improve patient access to the practice.
• Take steps to monitor the completeness of patient clinical care and medicine reviews.

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