Background to this inspection
Updated
23 January 2019
Dr Sumedha Tillu (also known as The Hawthorns Medical Centre) is located in Smethwick, an area of Birmingham, West Midlands. The surgery is situated in a purpose built health centre with consulting rooms on the ground floor and upper floor which can be accessed by a lift. There are good transport links and there is a pharmacy located nearby.
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
Dr Tillu’s practice is situated within the Sandwell & West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 3,500 patients under the terms of a general medical services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community.
The provider is a single handed female GP who is supported by a regular male locum GP and a physician associate. Another female GP has recently started at the practice on a locum basis doing one session a week. Through the federation the practice is part of, a pharmacist carries out one session a week to review patients’ medicines and to support the practice in carrying out medicine audits. There is a female part time advanced nurse practitioner and prescriber, a female part time nurse and a female part time health care assistant. There is a part time practice manager who is supported by a team of administrative staff.
The practice offers seven day access to appointments through hub working arrangements. The practice is open from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday (except Wednesday afternoons). However appointments are available through the local hub from 6.30pm to 8pm Monday to
Friday. Saturday appointments are available from 9.30am to 12.30pm and Sunday from 9am to 11.30am. Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to call 111.
There are higher than average number of patients under the age of 18 years of age with 30.7% of patients being in this age group, in comparison to the national average of 20.8%. Data provided by Public Health England shows that 55% of the practice population are from an Asian background with 29.5% of the population originating from a white background. The practice told us on average, there are approximately 70% of patients who do not speak English as a first language. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as one, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest.
Updated
23 January 2019
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Tillu’s practice, also known as The Hawthorns Medical Practice over two days on 4 and 18 December 2018 as part of our inspection programme. The practice was rated as requires improvement for the caring and responsive key questions and requires improvement overall at the previous inspection in November 2017. You can read the report from our last focused inspection on 8 November 2017; by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr Sumedha Tillu on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
This report covers our findings in relation to improvements made since our last inspection and any additional improvements we found at this inspection. The report covers our findings in relation to all five key questions and six population groups.
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 now rated the caring and responsive key questions as good as the practice had made improvements in these areas. This means that this practice is now rated as good overall and good for all population groups.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- The practice had been working with cancer screening co-ordinators to improve the uptake of patients attending screening appointments and evidence provided showed an increase in all national screening targets.
- The practice achievement in the national patient survey published in August 2018 continued to be low regarding access in comparison to the national averages. The practice however had taken steps to improve this, they were also part of a hub where patients could access appointments outside of surgery hours and at weekends.
- Due to the poor uptake of the national patient survey where 2% of the practice population had completed a survey, the practice had conducted an inhouse survey to gather patient feedback and an action plan had been implemented to improve patient satisfaction.
- The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Regular reviews were completed of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided.
- The practice had a comprehensive programme of quality improvement activity which demonstrated quality improvements. Clinical leads routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided and implemented action plans to improve any identified areas.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person centred care.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Review the current emergency equipment to take action in the diagnosis of Sepsis in children.
- Continue to gather feedback to monitor services and improve patient satisfaction.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice