The Health Centre

Updated 8 March 2024

The Health Centre is located in South Ockenden, Thurrock at:

Darenth Lane

South Ockenden

Thurrock

RM15 5LP

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, family planning and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 4900. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices in Thurrock primary care network.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (4 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 5.5% Asian, 76.1% White, 14.1% Black, 3% Mixed, and 1.3% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more working age patients than older and young patients.

There is a team of 3 GP partners. The practices have a team of 1 practice nurse and 1 healthcare assistant. The local primary care network also supported staffing with 1 clinical pharmacist, 1 advanced nurse practitioner, 1 trainee advanced practitioner, 2 paramedics, 1 mental health practitioner, a social prescriber, an occupational therapist, and a physiotherapist. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. The practice manager and operations manager provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open between 8.30 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday.

The practice also offered extended access through the ASOP primary care network. These appointments were available on Monday to Friday from 6.30 pm to 8 pm and on Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm.

Outside of these hours, patients were asked to contact NHS 111.

Updated 8 March 2024

We carried out a targeted assessment of The Health Centre on 31 January 2024 without a site visit. Overall, the practice is rated as good. We rated the key question of responsive as good.

Safe –good – carried forward from previous inspection

Effective – good – carried forward from previous inspection

Caring – good – carried forward from previous inspection

Responsive – good

Well led – good – carried forward from previous inspection

Following our previous inspection in September 2019, the practice was rated good for safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. At this inspection, we rated the practice good for providing responsive services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Health Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet demand for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers.

How we carried out the review

This assessment was carried out remotely. It did not include a site visit.

The process included:

• Conducting an interview with the provider and members of staff using video conferencing.
• Reviewing patient feedback from a range of sources
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• Reviewing data we hold about the service
• Seeking information/feedback from relevant stakeholders

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:

• Patient satisfaction relating to telephone access had seen upward trends in patient satisfaction since 2021.
• Services met the needs of individual people and were always delivered in a way to ensure continuity of care.
• Patients could always access care and treatment in a timely way and appointments were always easily accessible in a way that suited a patient’s individual need.
• The provider supported a homeless charity to ensure medical care was given.
• The practice was in an area of high deprivation. The staff donated and supported a local food bank and referred patients who required extra meal support.
• The practice had regular meetings for innovative ways to improve access through patient and staff feedback.

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