- GP practice
Hockley Medical Practice
Report from 22 February 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Hockley Medical Practice is a NHS GP practice which provides primary care services to patients in Birmingham. We carried out an announced assessment of one quality statement, Equity of Access, under the key question Responsive on the 29 March 2024. Responsive assessments are remote focused reviews to help us understand what practices are doing to try to meet patient demand and the current experience of people who use these services and of providers. The responsive key question is still rated as good. The service remains rated as good overall. We recognise the great and often innovative work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know colleagues are doing this while demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. In this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. These assessments of the quality statement Equity in Access in the responsive key question includes looking at what practices are doing to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement. People can access services when they need to, without physical or digital barriers, including out of normal hours and in an emergency. People are given support to overcome barriers to ensure equal access. The practice understood the challenges to patient access and responded to patient needs. We found that the practice had organised services to meet patients’ needs, particularly those who were most likely to have difficulty accessing care. The practice used feedback and other information to monitor and improve access. The practice was taking action to improve access, particularly to how easy it was for patients to contact the practice, but this was not yet reflected consistently in the GP patient survey data.
People's experience of this service
In the 2023 National GP Patient Survey, the practice’s data for access was mixed. Patient satisfaction with their GP practice appointment times and satisfaction with the appointment offered were in line with average. Patient satisfaction with getting through to the practice by phone and with the overall experience of making an appointment were below average. Patient feedback gathered by the practice was more positive, including feedback gathered after some recent improvements, but this cannot be compared directly to the National GP Patient Survey. We had feedback from 3 patients who made positive comments about the service, including the experience of making appointment . We recognise the pressure that practices are currently working under, and the efforts staff are making to maintain levels of access for their patients. At the same time, our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. Although we saw the practice was attempting to improve access, this was not yet reflected in the GP patient survey data or other sources of patient feedback.