Archived: Haslucks Green Medical Centre

Updated 16 July 2015

Haslucks Green Medical Centre provides primary medical services to approximately 6500 patients in the local community. There is a slightly higher than average number of older patients within the local community consisting of 18.8% compared with England’s average of 16.5%. There is a higher than average number of pregnant patients registered at the practice.

There is one female GP in this practice. There are two salaried GPs (both female) working at the practice and a third male GP is due to commence in May 2015. It is a teaching practice for two medical students. There are two practice nurses and a health care assistant who also provide clinical services for patients. The practice manager is supported by five receptionists and three administrators who work varying hours.

The practice has a General Medical Service (GMS) contract with NHS England. A GMS contract means that patients are registered with the practice and not an individual GP but the practice will focus on delivery of quality clinical care and well managed services.

The practice offers a range of clinics and services including, asthma, child health and development, contraception, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and minor surgery.

Practice opening hours are Monday 8am until 6.15pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 7.30am until 6.15pm and Thursday 7.30am until 4pm.

The practice has opted out of providing out-of-hours services to their own patients. This service is provided by Birmingham and District General Practitioner Emergency Rooms (Badger) an external out of hour’s service contracted by the CCG.

The premises are also used for hospital community services. They are ophthalmology, cardiology (heart) and dermatology.

Updated 16 July 2015

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Haslucks Green Medical Centre on 21 April 2015.

We have rated each section of our findings for each key area. We have rated the practice as good for delivery of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services for the population it served. The overall rating was good and this was because on-going improvements had been made that had a positive impact on patient care by staff who were motivated and carried out their roles effectively. The practice is rated good for all population groups.

Our key findings were as follows:

• Practice staff worked together and were enthusiastic to make ongoing improvements for the benefit of patients. Practice staff had recognised where further improvements were needed and were putting systems in place to address them.

• The practice was visibly clean. The standards of hygiene were regularly monitored to protect patients from unnecessary infections. Health and safety arrangements were in place to protect patients from risks of injury when they visited the practice.

• There was a register of all vulnerable patients who were reviewed regularly. All patients we spoke with told us they were satisfied with the care they received and their medicines were regularly reviewed.

• Practice staff had identified carers and entered them on a register. GPs offered carers advice and signposted them to various support groups. Practice staff provided information and education about healthy living to patients who have long term conditions.

• The practice was able to demonstrate a good track record for safety. Effective systems were in place for reporting safety incidents. Untoward incidents were investigated and where possible improvements made to prevent similar occurrences.

• We found that patients were treated with respect and their privacy was maintained. Patients informed us they were very satisfied with the care they received and their ability to book an appointment when they felt they needed to.

We found an area where the practice was outstanding:

• Regular workshops were provided where external speakers were invited to attend to educate patients about healthy living and long term conditions. These were organised by the Patient Participation Group (PPG) in conjunction with practice staff. PPGs are a way for patients and practice staff to work together to improve services and promote quality care.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 16 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long term conditions. The practice held registers for patients with long term conditions and offered structured reviews for these patients to check their health and medicines needs were being met. Clinical staff had good working relationships with a wide range of community staff and held regular meetings with them to ensure patients received seamless care. Emergency processes were in place and referrals made for patients in this group that had a sudden deterioration in health. Structured annual and if necessary more regular reviews were undertaken to check health and care needs were being met.

Updated 16 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies. Practice staff liaised with local health visitors to offer a full health surveillance programme for children. Checks were also made to ensure maximum uptake of childhood immunisations. The clinical team offered immunisations to children in line with the national immunisation programme.Women were given advice and information about the importance of cervical screening programmes. Midwives held ante natal clinics at the practice and staff had good links with health visitors to ensure children received appropriate care.

Updated 16 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in this population group. All patients over 75 years of age had an allocated named GP. This is an accountable GP to ensure these patients received co-ordinated care. The practice was responsive to the needs of older people, including offering home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs. Reception staff were informed of who these patients were so that they could respond appropriately. The wishes of patients requiring end of life care were met, this included care being provided in the patient’s home by the GP and multi-disciplinary team. Telephone consultations were available so patients could call and speak with a GP if they did not wish to or were unable to attend the practice.

Updated 16 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working age people (including those recently retired and students). Practice staff offered extended opening hours to assist this patient group in a accessing the practice. Appointments were available from 7.30am four days a week. Telephone consultations could be arranged and patients could make appointments and order their repeat prescriptions on line. Health promotion advice was offered by staff but limited health promotion literature was available through the practice. However, there were monthly newsletters developed that provided information about accessing the practice and health promotion. Regular workshops were provided where external speakers were invited to attend to educate patients about healthy living and long term conditions.

Updated 16 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). Patients experiencing poor mental health had received an annual physical health check. GPs had the necessary skills and information to treat or refer patients with poor mental health. Practice staff worked in conjunction with the local mental health team and community psychiatric nurses to ensure patients had the support they needed. The staff we spoke with worked within the boundaries of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and had appropriate skills for dealing with patients with dementia.

Updated 16 July 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. Practice staff had identified patients with a learning disability, carried out regular health checks and treated them appropriately. Practice staff regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. All patients within this group had received annual or more regular health checks as required. GPs carried out regular home visits to patients who were physically unable to travel to the practice and offered advice via telephone consultations.