Background to this inspection
Updated
4 June 2021
Fulham Cross Medical Centre is located in West London within the Hammersmith and Fulham Clinical Commissioning Group. The practice is part of a primary care network of local GP practices.
The practice provides services to around 3000 patients. It operates from one, purpose-built site and has good transport links. The practice opens between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours appointments are available on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Patients can also access evening and weekend appointments at ‘hub’ practices in the local area provided by the primary care network. Out of hours services are accessed via the NHS 111 telephone service.
The service is provided by two partners and was registered with CQC in June 2019. The practice employs regular locum GPs, a health care assistant, administrative and reception staff and a practice nurse. Patients have the choice of a male or female GP.
The practice population is similar to the national average in terms of socio-economic indicators and life expectancy and is culturally and ethnically diverse. The practice has a relatively high proportion of working age adults with below average numbers of children aged under 14.
The practice is registered to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and, maternity and midwifery services.
Updated
4 June 2021
We carried out an announced inspection at Fulham Cross Medical Centre from 27 - 29 April 2021. This included a site visit on 29 April 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
Safe - Good
Effective – Requires improvement
Well-led - Good
Following our previous inspection on 13 November 2020, the practice was rated Requires improvement overall. It was rated Requires improvement for the key questions: Are services effective and Are services well-led? The remaining key questions were rated Good. The service was also found to be in breach of regulation 17 Good governance and issued with a warning notice for the poor quality of its clinical record-keeping.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Fulham Cross Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
This inspection was a focused inspection to follow up on:
- Are services safe?
- Are services effective?
- Are services well led?
We also followed-up on the breach of regulation 17 in relation to poor clinical record keeping. The practice was previously rated Good for the key questions: Are services caring? and Are services responsive? These key questions were not reviewed at this inspection and the previous ratings (Good) have been carried forward.
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.
The practice is rated as Good for providing safe and well-led services. The practice is rated as Requires improvement for providing effective services.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- The practice had improved the quality of clinical record keeping since our previous inspection.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. However, some areas of performance remained lower than average and below target, notably cancer screening and childhood immunisation uptake rates. The practice had developed an action plan and was in the process of implementing this.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
We found no breaches of regulations.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Take effective action to improve mental health care planning and cancer screening and childhood immunisation uptake rates.
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