The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Archived: Dr Clifford Ojukwu Also known as Birmingham Heartlands Surgery

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

78-81 Gray Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B9 4LS (0121) 772 2020

Provided and run by:
Dr Clifford Ojukwu

All Inspections

20 October 2016

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out a focused inspection of Dr C Ojukwu on 20 October 2016 to check that action had been taken since our previous inspection on 15 September 2015. At the inspection in September 2015 the practice was rated as requires improvement overall. The practice was rated good for effective and well led services, but rated requires improvement for safe, caring and responsive.

In September 2015 we found that the practice required improvement in the safe domain due to a breach of regulations relating to safe care and treatment. This was because:

  • the nurse treatment room was not adequately maintained so that the risk of infection could be managed effectively for the safety of patients and staff.

Additional improvements were required because:

  • The provider had not taken action to show how they intended to address the results shown in the National GP Patient Surveys for 2014/2015.

  • The health and safety of staff was not assured when using computer equipment situated in the nurse’s treatment room.

  • The provider needed to take action to improve the availability of non-urgent appointments.

We inspected the practice on 20 October 2016 to check that they had followed their action plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection. You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection of Dr C Ojukwu on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Our key findings for this inspection were as follows:

The provider had made improvements:

  • An extension to the practice building had been completed to provide additional treatment rooms. All existing consulting/treatment rooms had been refurbished as part of the restructuring which meant effective management of infection control could be maintained in the nurses room and throughout the building.

  • The provider had developed a plan of action plan to show how the practice aimed to address the results shown in the National GP Patient Surveys and the action they had taken. This included annual practice patient surveys, compilation of surveys in alternative languages to reach non-English speaking patients to gain their views of the practice, installation of an upgraded telephone system to improve telephone access for patients and the planned trial of an earlier opening time from 9am with effect from 2 January 2017.

  • Appropriate display screen assessments had been completed for the use of computer equipment in the nurses room. Records confirmed that health and safety guidelines were being followed.

  • The provider had made suitable arrangements to improve the availability of non-urgent appointments. Cover was provided by Badger Medical for daytime hours when the practice was closed.

However there was an area where the provider should make improvements:

  • Continue to ensure continued improvements to patient satisfaction are made in response to feedback from the National GP Patient Survey information.

The practice was rated good for safe and caring services and requires improvement for responsive. The practice is now rated good overall.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

15 September 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr C Ojukwu on 15 September 2015. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement. The practice is rated as good for the provision of effective and well led services but requires improvements in the provision of safe, caring and responsive services.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.
  • Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment. Information was provided to help patients understand the care available to them.
  • The practice had implemented suggestions for improvements made by the Patient Participation Group (PPG) to the telephone system, with further changes planned so that patients had improved access to appointments. Patients told us the practice had made some improvements recently although some patients said that they still had difficulty making an appointment by telephone.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance. Staff had received training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had been identified and planned.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.

However there were areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements.

Importantly the provider must:

  • Ensure that the nurse treatment room is adequately maintained so that infection control is managed effectively for the safety of patients and staff.

Importantly the provider should:

  • Ensure an action plan is drawn up to show how the practice aimed to address the results shown in the national patient surveys and the action taken.
  • Ensure that the health and safety of staff is assured when using computer equipment situated in the nurse’s treatment room.
  • Improve the availability of non-urgent appointments.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

18 September 2014

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We previously inspected Dr Clifford Ojukwu on 10 January 2014. At the time we found four areas of non-compliance which we judged had minor impact on patients who used the service.

We found that patients were not always respected and their views and experiences were not always taken into account in the way the service was provided and delivered. We found that care and treatment was not always planned and delivered in a way that was intended to ensure patient's safety and welfare.

Patients were not always protected against the risks associated with medicines because the provider did not have adequate arrangements in place to manage medicines. The provider did not have an effective complaints system to ensure complaints were listened to and acted on properly. We asked the provider to make improvements.

The purpose of this inspection was to check if the practice had made the necessary improvements. We spoke with the practice manager who had been in the post for three weeks. We also spoke with two staff members, five patients and the lead GP who was also the registered provider.

10 January 2014

During a routine inspection

As part of our inspection we spoke with five patients who used the service. This included one patient who was also a member of the Patient Participation Group. We also spoke with five members of staff including a GP, the practice manager and three reception staff. The practice manager had been in place for three months, prior to this there had been no practice manager for approximately two years.

Patients spoken with gave mixed views about the care and treatment they received at the practice. Only two of the five patients we spoke with said they would recommend the practice to others. Patients frequently spoke about the difficulties of making an appointment and being told to attend other health services for their health problems in those situations. One patient told us, 'My son had a fever and we had to wait until 6 o'clock and go to Badger [GP out of hours service].' Another patient told us, 'It [the service] is fine, the only issue I have got is booking for appointments, there have been plenty of times when I phoned and there are no appointments.'

We found the arrangements in place to protect people who may be at risk from abuse were adequate. However, we were concerned that patients were not always treated with respect and dignity. We witnessed first hand poor practice by some but not all staff. We found that the management of medicines did not adequately protect patients from the risks associated with medicines. Arrangements to check medicines held at the practice were either not in place or not sufficiently robust.

The complaints system was not fully effective. We were unable to determine what complaints had been received during the last year and how they had been managed. However, we saw that there had been some improvements since the appointment of a new practice manager.