Archived: Dr Syed Ayaz Ahmed

Updated 10 February 2020

Dr Syed Ayaz Ahmed also known as “Village Medical Centre” provides primary medical services to approximately 7500 patients in the local community. The provider is a single-handed GP, services are delivered from a modern purpose built premise.

The practice is registered with the CQC to carry out the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and maternity and midwifery services.

The practice provides NHS services through a General Medical Services (GMS). The practice is part of the NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which is made up of 88 general practices.

The practice’s clinical team is led by the provider who is the lead GP (male) and six locum GPs (three male and three female) who work a total of 41 sessions per week. The practice employs, a nurse prescriber and two advance nurses who are also prescribers who undertake a total of 16 sessions a week. There are two health care assistants (one of whom is an apprentice) who work a total of six sessions and a clinical pharmacist who works three sessions a week. There is a practice manager and a team of administrative staff.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The CCG has commissioned an extended hours service. The extended access service is provided as part of a joint working arrangement with other local practices. Extended access appointments are booked by patients through their GP practice. Patients are seen at Village Medical Centre which is the main hub site for the extended access service. The extended hours service operates Monday to Friday 6.30pm to 8pm and on Saturday 9am to 12pm

The practice has opted out of providing an out-of-hours service. Patients can access the out of hours service provider by calling NHS 111.

Public Health England data shows the practice is located in one of the most deprived areas of England. The practice has a higher than the national average number of patients aged under 18 years.

Updated 10 February 2020

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Syed Ayaz Ahmed (also known as Village Medical Centre) on 18 December 2019, following our annual regulatory review of the information available to us including information provided by the practice. Our review indicated that there may have been a change to the quality of care provided since the last inspection.

This inspection focused on all of the following key questions:

• Safe
• Effective
• Caring
• Responsive
• Well-led

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 requires improvement overall.

We rated the practice as requires improvement for providing safe, effective, responsive and well led services.

• There were some systems and processes in place to keep people safe. However, these were not always identified, sufficiently well managed or embedded to ensure their effectiveness.
• Improvements were required in the management of patients with long term conditions such as those with diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• The uptake of cervical screening was below the national minimum standards. Although the practice had taken some action to improve, the practice could not yet demonstrate this had resulted in significant improvements.
• People were not always able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There was no effective system in place to obtain patient feedback to improve the service.
• There was a lack of effective leadership and oversight to ensure good governance. The practice did not always have clear and effective processes for identifying and managing risks, issues and performance.

We rated the practice as good for providing caring services because:

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. Patient feedback was overall positive. This included the results of the national GP survey which showed the practice was mostly similar to the local and national average in questions relating to caring.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider how to increase the uptake for cervical screening so the minimum coverage target for the national screening programme is met.
• Consider how to further improve the management of patients with long term conditions such as those with diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Review the information in the patient waiting area to raise patient’s awareness on services and support available for example, carers and those with communication needs. Make clear the arrangements in place to ensure confidentiality at the reception desk.
• Consider developing a practice website to ensure information is accessible to patients.

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

Updated 10 February 2020

Updated 10 February 2020

Updated 10 February 2020

Updated 10 February 2020

Updated 10 February 2020

Updated 10 February 2020