The Acton Health Centre

Updated 25 August 2023

The Acton Health Centre is located in the Ealing area in West London at:

35-61 Church Road

Acton

London

W3 8QE

We visited this location as part of this inspection activity. The practice is in purpose-built premises. The premises is shared with other community services.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; maternity and midwifery services; surgical procedures; family planning; and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The practice’s CQC registration is up to date.

The practice is situated within the North West London Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 4,320. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of the Acton Primary Care Network (PCN) and Ealing GP Federation.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third lowest decile (3 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 54% White, 16% Asian, 17% Black, 5% Mixed, and 8% Other.

The majority of patients within the practice are of working age. The working age practice population is higher and the older people practice population is lower than the national average.

There are 2 GP partners and 4 locum GPs. Four GPs are female and 2 are male. The practice employs a practice nurse and a health care assistant. The partners are supported by a practice manager, a business manager and a team of administrative and reception staff. A clinical pharmacist (employed by the primary care network) is working at the practice one day per week.

The senior GP also operates 2 separate general practices in the local area. Both GP partners offer 4 sessions per week at the practice. In addition, the senior partner offers 1 hour of remote telephone consultations everyday Monday to Friday. The senior GP is accessible remotely when not present on the premises.

The practice is open from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types.

Extended access is provided locally by the PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Practice Plus.

Updated 25 August 2023

We carried out an announced focused inspection at The Acton Health Centre on 31 May 2023 and 1 June 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good.

Effective - Good.

Caring - not inspected, rating of Good carried forward from the previous inspection.

Responsive - Good.

Well-led - Good.

Following our previous inspection on 13 May 2022, the practice was rated requires improvement overall and for safe, effective and well-led key questions. We did not inspect caring and responsive during the previous inspection.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

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

At this inspection, we covered these key questions:

• Are services safe?
• Are services effective?
• Are services responsive?
• Are services well-led?

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 had demonstrated significant improvements in areas identified during the previous inspection.
• Our clinical records searches showed that the practice had a process for monitoring patients’ health in relation to the use of medicines including medicines that require ongoing monitoring. However, some further improvements were required.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Recruitment checks including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) were carried out in accordance with regulations.
• Blank prescription forms were recorded correctly, and their use was monitored in line with national guidance.
• There was an infection prevention and control policy and procedures were in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• There was a system for recording and acting on significant events.
• There was a system for recording and acting on safety alerts.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• Feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treated people.
• The practice had systems to manage and learn from complaints.
• The Patient Participation Group (PPG) was active.

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

• Take further steps to improve processes for monitoring patients’ health in relation to the use of some medicines that require ongoing monitoring.
• Continue to encourage the patient for cervical, breast and bowel cancer screening and childhood immunisation uptake.

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