• Doctor
  • GP practice

Archived: Sycamore House Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

111 Birmingham Road, Walsall, West Midlands, WS1 2NL

Provided and run by:
Umbrella Medical

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 5 December 2019

Sycamore House Medical Practice is part of Umbrella Medical. Umbrella Medical is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a partnership, with services within Walsall. Sycamore House Medical Practice is located in Walsall, West Midlands. The practice is part of the NHS Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group. The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease disorder or injury.

The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England. A GMS contract is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services and is the commonest form of GP contract.

The practice operates from Sycamore House Medical Practice, Sycamore House, 111 Birmingham Road, Walsall, WS1 2NL.

There are approximately 4,977 patients of various ages registered and cared for at the practice. The practice provides GP services in an area considered to be one of the less deprived within its locality. Demographically the practice has a lower than average patient population aged under 18 years, with 21% falling into this category, compared with the CCG average of 24% and England average of 21%. Twenty per cent of the practice population is above 65 years which is higher than the CCG average of 16% and the national average of 17%. The percentage of patients with a long-standing health condition is 52% which is in line with the local CCG and national averages. The practice life expectancy for patients is 80 years for males and 84 years for females which is above the national average. National General Practice Profile describes the practice ethnicity as being 57.5% white British, 34.4% Asian, 2.6% black, 2.4% mixed and 3% other non-white ethnicities.

The staffing consists of:

  • One regular GP Partner and one salaried GP (both male).
  • Two practice nurses and a trainee advanced nurse practitioner and three health care assistants.
  • Three clinical pharmacists.
  • A locality manager supported by a reception manager and a team of reception/administrative staff.

The practice is also an approved teaching and training practice and provides training to medical students from the University of Birmingham. There are two Foundation Year two Doctors (FY2s).

The practice is open between 7.30am and 6.30pm every day, and sub contracts essential services to a in-hours provider on a Thursday afternoon. When the practice is closed patients are directed towards the out of hours provider via the NHS 111 service. Patients also have access to the Extended GP Access Service between 6.30pm and 9pm on weekdays, 10am to 3pm on weekends, and 11am to 1.30pm on bank holidays.

The practice does not routinely provide an out of hours to their own patients, but patients are directed to the out of hours service, through the NHS 111 service when the practice closed.

Additional information about the practice is available on their website at www.sycamorehousesurgery.co.uk

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 5 December 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sycamore House Medical Centre 25 September 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

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 good overall and good for all population groups.

We found that:

  • The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • The practice had reviewed and re-organised the way in which services were delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • Daily urgent care clinics for minor ailments were managed by the Advanced Nurse Practitioners and clinical pharmacists, and GPs appointments were 15 minutes for patients with more complex needs.
  • The practice had introduced dedicated ‘urgent child’ appointments to facilitate rapid access for young children to been seen the same day.
  • All requests for home visits were triaged through the dedicated home visiting team, which resulted in patients being seen by the most appropriate clinician or managed through a telephone consultation if appropriate.
  • The culture of the practice and the way it was led and managed drove the delivery and improvement of high-quality, person-centred care.
  • There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. For example: the practice encouraged and supported the staff to develop their skills and knowledge, the development to non-clinical champions for cancer care, carers and people with a learning disability.
  • The practice had successfully bid for NHSE funding via the clinical pharmacists in general practice scheme and utilised the role to increase the number of medication reviews for patients with complex poly pharmacy and provide an efficient, safe response time to repeat prescription requests.
  • Non-clinical staff had been supported through the apprenticeship scheme to develop their skills and knowledge.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

  • Update the chaperone policy to include where staff should stand during the examination.
  • Obtain the full immunisation status for all staff.
  • Formalise and document the clinical supervision discussions and review of consultations.
  • Develop an inhouse appraisal for salaried GPs.

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