Anchor Medical Practice Also known as Netherton Health Centre

Updated 30 October 2023

Anchor Medical Centre is located in Netherton:

Netherton Health Centre
Halesowen Road, Netherton
Dudley
DY2 9PU

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 and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 8,090. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is ranked as level 3, with one being the most deprived and 10 being the least deprived. According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 85% White, 15% Black, Asian, Mixed and Other.

The practice is run by two GP partners (male) and the clinical team includes an advanced nurse practitioner, two practice nurses and two health care assistants. The clinicians are supported by a practice manager, an office manager, an IT lead and a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is open between 8.30am to 6.30pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and from 8.30am until 8pm on Tuesdays. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments. Evening appointments are available as part of the primary care network. Out of hours services are provided by NHS111.

Updated 30 October 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Anchor Medical Centre on 4 October 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe – requires improvement

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - good

Well-led - requires improvement

Following our previous inspection on 13 January 2015, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions. The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Anchor Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

This was a comprehensive inspection to review the following domains:

• Safe
• Effective
• Caring
• Responsive
• 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:

• There was safeguarding processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse, however not all staff were trained to the appropriate levels for their role.
• There was an absence of appropriate staff recruitment checks to ensure safety and checks of staff immunisation status or appropriate risk assessments had not been completed for all staff.
• Patients’ needs were assessed and care and treatment was delivered in line with current standards and evidence-based guidance.
• The practice learned from incidents, events and complaints and ensured learning was shared amongst the staff team.
• We found the premises were well maintained, appeared clean and tidy and had appropriate infection prevention and control arrangements in place.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There were governance systems in place, however they did not always work effectively, in particular the oversight of recruitment checks for staff employed.
• There was evidence to demonstrate that the practice involved patients, staff or stakeholders in shaping the service.
• The practice culture supported high quality sustainable care.

We found a breach of regulation. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

Whilst we found a breach of regulation, the provider should:

• Take action to complete mandatory training for staff employed at the practice.
• Take action to ensure staff are trained to the appropriate safeguarding levels.
• Take action to complete sepsis training.
• Take action to complete a risk assessment in line with health and safety.
• Take action to complete audits for non-medical prescribers.
• Take action to increase the uptake of carers registered at the practice.
• Take action to review the coding of patients with a misdiagnosis.

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