Midland Health

Updated 9 May 2023

Midland Health provide a private medical service at 23a Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 3DP where they offer GP services and a range of non-emergency specialist services in Ear, Nose and Throat, Dermatology, Women's Health Physiotherapy, Fertility, Paediatrics, CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy), General Surgery, ADHD and ASD assessments and ultrasound services. The practice is also a registered yellow fever vaccination centre. Midland Health also has a practice in Leicester. The Leicester practice was not visited during this inspection. Further details about the services provided can be found on the provider’s website: www.midlandhealth.co.uk

The private practice is open 8am to 7pm on a Monday to Friday and from 8am to 1pm on Saturday. Patients can access appointments by telephone and online through the practice website. There are currently 48,000 patients registered with the service some of which use the service regularly while others do so on an ad hoc or one-off basis.

The practice is led by a medical director and consists of 6 GPs, 2 nurses, 7 health care assistants, 3 reception staff and 5 call centre staff. There were 13 consultants offering a range of specialised services from the premises.

The provider is registered with CQC for the following regulated activities: Diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

How we inspected this service

Before visiting the practice, we reviewed information we held about the service. We also asked the provider to send us some information about the service.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with GPs, a consultant, practice nurse, health care assistants, reception staff and the practice manager.
• Reviewed documentary evidence that was made available to us relating to the running of the service.
• We reviewed a sample of patient records with the GP to understand how the provider assessed and documented patients care and treatment. We also used this to assess how consent was obtained.
• We made observations of the facilities that were used for providing the service.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 9 May 2023

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Midland Health on 7 March 2023. The provider registered with the CQC on 5 May 2022 and had not been inspected previously.

Midland Health is a private GP practice situated in Edgbaston, Birmingham. They provide face to face consultations and offer appointments with a range of in-house specialist consultants who cover a wide range of medical areas. This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of of the services it provides.

The medical director, is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Our key findings were:

• Governance systems were well established within the service. There was effective systems for monitoring service provision to ensure it was safe.
• There were systems in place for the overall management of significant events and incidents. Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• There was evidence of quality improvement activity and regular audits were completed to monitor the quality of services and implement new initiatives.
• There were appropriate systems in place for obtaining patient consent for procedures undertaken.
• The practice encouraged and valued feedback from patients and staff. It proactively sought patients’ feedback. Online comments highlighted that patients were pleased with the care provided by the doctors and staff were described as efficient, friendly and helpful.
• Staff felt supported and were confident in raising concerns and suggesting improvements. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Services were planned and delivered to take into account the needs of different patient groups and to help ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take action to improve the management of clinical waste.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services