The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

King Edwards Medical Centre

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

1 King Edwards Road, Barking, Essex, IG11 7TB (020) 8594 2988

Provided and run by:
Aurora Medcare

All Inspections

15 to 29 November 2022

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at King Edwards Medical Centre between 15 and 29 November 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - good.

Effective – good.

Caring – good.

Responsive - requires improvement.

Well-led – good.

Following our previous inspection on 22 May 2017, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this comprehensive inspection in line with our inspection priorities.

How we carried out the inspection/review

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A short site visit.

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.
  • Information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

  • The practice had responded to the negative findings of the GP survey and patient’s complaints over the previous 12 months regarding long waiting times on the telephone and lack of appointments. However, at the time of this inspection the responses had only recently been implemented or were waiting commencement. We were therefore unable to establish if changes had made or would improve patient satisfaction in these areas.
  • The leadership were responsive and immediately responded to the findings during the inspection to improve outcomes for patients.
  • The practice had systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse, which included close links with the local schools.
  • There were adequate systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety.
  • Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The practice considered the needs of the practice population group.
  • The practice had implemented a diabetes diet program in June 2020. One hundred and twenty patients had taken part to improve their diet and for weight management over two years. The program considered patients cultural needs, signposted patients for advice and invited family members to attend alongside the patient and allows access to a health wellbeing coach. Patients had improved outcomes, for example, three patients were able to stop all medications completely.
  • The practice was the COVID vaccination centre and primary care network lead for the area. It had carried out the vaccination programs for people who were homeless, people who lived in residential care, and for refugees who were staying in local hotels.
  • Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

We found a breach of regulation. The provider must:

  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider should:

  • Review and improve failsafe systems for and the uptake of cervical screening.
  • Take steps to have evidence available of the training of locum and pharmacy working in the practice.
  • Continue to formalise the supervision of clinical staff.
  • Continue to ensure the effectiveness of the system to manage safety alerts.
  • Continue to improve the system of annual review of patients with long-term health conditions.
  • Continue to improve the effectiveness of the monitoring of high-risk medicines.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services

22 May 2017

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice


We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at King Edwards medical Centre on 7 October 2015 and rated the practice as requires improvement for the safe key question and good for effective, caring, responsive and well-led. This led to an overall rating of Good. Breaches of legal requirements were found and requirement notices were issued in relation to staffing and fit and proper persons employed. The full comprehensive report can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for King Edwards Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced comprehensive inspection which we undertook on 22 May 2017 to confirm the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 7 October 2015. At this inspection we found that the requirements of the notices had been met; Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

  • There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
  • The practice had clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety.
  • Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.

  • Clinicians participated in regular clinical audits which were used to modify current practices and demonstrated quality improvement.

  • Results from the national GP patient survey showed patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
  • Patients we spoke with said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
  • The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • 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.
  • Staff told us that interpretation services were available for patients who did not have English as a first language, however we saw no notices in the reception areas informing patients this service was available.
  • The practice offered a “carers” clinic in association with the local carers association which focused on patients “social prescribing healthcare needs” including loneliness; we noted the practice had identified less than one per cent of its practice list as carers.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

  • Review how patients with caring responsibilities are identified and recorded on the clinical system to ensure information, advice and support is made available to them.

  • Ensure the interpreting/translation services are brought to the attention of patients.

  • Review ways of improving childhood immunisation rates.

  • Review high exception reporting for diabetes and consider ways to bring this down.

  • Ensure patients are provided with up-to-date information on how to access out of hours services.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

7 October 2015

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at King Edwards Medical Centre on the 7 October 2015. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns, and to report incidents and near misses. Information about safety was recorded, monitored, appropriately reviewed and addressed.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, with the exception of safeguarding training for clinical staff and recruitment checks.
  • Patients’ needs were assessed and care was planned and delivered following best practice guidance.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • Patients said there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
  • 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 Level 3 child protection training is provided to all clinical staff.
  • Ensure recruitment arrangements include all necessary employment checks for all non-clinical staff.

In addition the provider should:

  • Ensure the serial numbers of prescriptions issued are logged and to ensure an audit trail is kept to monitor their use.

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.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice