Village Medical Centre

Updated 6 September 2023

Village Medical Centre is located in Wednesbury at:

158A Crankhall Lane

Wednesbury

West Midlands

WS10 0EB

The practice has a branch surgery at:

Jubilee Health Centre

1 Upper Russell Street

Wednesbury

WS10 7AR

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. These are delivered from both sites.

The practice offers services from both a main practice and a branch surgery. Patients can access services at either surgery.

The practice is situated within the Black Country Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS). This is part of a contract held with NHS England. The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (one of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 84% White, 9% Asian, 4% Black, 1% Mixed, and 2% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more male patients registered at the practice compared to females.

There is a team of 5 GPs who provide cover at both practices. The practice has a team of 2 advanced nurse prescribers, 2 clinical pharmacists, 2 practice nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions and 2 health care assistants. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. The business manager and practice manager are based at the main location to provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open between 8 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided on Tuesday and Wednesday from 6.30pm to 8pm at the practice and during the week patients can access appointments at other locations within the locality. Saturday appointments are also available through the primary care network at GP practices within the locality. Out of hours services are provided by NHS111.

Updated 6 September 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Village Medical Centre on 27 July 2023. The practice also has a branch practice at Jubilee Health Centre, the branch was not visited during the inspection. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Safe - requires improvement

Effective - requires improvement

Caring - good

Responsive – requires improvement

Well-led – requires improvement

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities. This was a new registration and the practice had not been inspected previously under this provider.

How we carried out the inspection

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

This included:

• Conducting clinical 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 and
• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

• The practice had a system in place for the actioning of safety alerts, however this needed strengthening to ensure all alerts were acted on in a timely manner to mitigate risk.
• The management of patients’ medicines required improvements to ensure the appropriate monitoring was in place.
• The process for reviewing patients with long term conditions needed improvement to ensure all patients received the appropriate reviews.
• The process for sharing information with the wider practice team needed to be formalised to ensure all staff were included in the sharing of learning outcomes.
• The practice had increased the number of clinical staff to improve the services provided, however could not demonstrate that patient satisfaction with access had significantly improved.
• The practice had clear processes in place to ensure safeguarding concerns were acted on promptly that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

We found breaches of regulations. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider should:

• Continue to improve on cancer screening and immunisation targets.
• Take action to share information with the wider practice team.

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 Health Care