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Archived: Darwin Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

St Chad's Health Centre, Dimbles Lane, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 7HT (01543) 682654

Provided and run by:
Darwin Medical Practice

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

Latest inspection summary

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Background to this inspection

Updated 18 March 2019

Darwin Medical Centre is located at Burntwood Health Centre, Hudson Drive, Burntwood

WS7 0EW and has two branch sites.

On 1 April 2017 The Spires and Fulfen Practice merged to become Darwin Medical Practice. The practice kept all the premises and identified the Burntwood Health Centre as the main site with two branches. This was the first inspection since the practice had merged.

The branches are located at Chasetown: 29-31 High St, Burntwood WS7 3XE

Lichfield: St Chads Health Centre, Dimbles Lane, Lichfield WS13 7HT

We inspected the main site at Burntwood and the Chasetown site as part of this inspection. We did not inspect the Lichfield site as part of this inspection. The Burntwood and Chasetown sites are about a mile apart and the Lichfield branch is about four miles from the main branch.

The surgery has good transport links and there is a pharmacy located nearby.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services, family planning and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. These are delivered from all sites. The practice is also registered to deliver the regulated activity surgical procedures which it carries out at the Chasetown branch site.

Darwin Medical Centre is a member of the NHS South East Staffs and Seisdon Peninsular Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to 17,000 patients. The practice provides services to patients under the terms of a General Medical Services (PMS) contract. The General Medical Services (GMS) contract is the usual contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities.

The provider is a partnership with six partners and four salaried GPs. The practice had two nurse practitioners and six practice nurses, one of whom is their community nurse. The practice has one physicians associate, a full-time pharmacist and host the Staffordshire Clinical Pharmacy Ambassador. The practice has four health care assistants / phlebotomists. There were two trainee GP’s who completed the clinical team. The management team included the practice manager, a business manager and a nurse manager. The clinical and leadership team were supported by two administrative managers and a team of seven administrative staff; three secretaries and twenty-three receptionists.

The practice is a training practice for GP registrars. GP Registrars are qualified doctors who undertake additional training to gain experience and higher qualifications in general practice and family medicine.

There are higher than average number of patients over the age of 65 and a slightly lower percentage aged between 20 and 39 years of age. The ethnicity data for the practice shows 97.9% of patients are white British. The area is less deprived when compared to national averages sitting in the third less deprived decile. However, there are pockets of deprivation in both

Lichfield and Burntwood.

Further information about the practices opening hours can be found on their website at: http://www.darwinmedicalpractice.co.uk/

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 18 March 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Darwin Medical Practice on 18 February 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 organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

  • Formalise reviews with nurse practitioners.
  • Complete the planned changes to the complaints process.
  • Continue to develop an oversight tool for the alert process.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice