Birchdale Road Medical Centre

Updated 18 October 2022

Birchdale Road Medical Centre is situated at 2 Birchdale Road, Forest Gate, London, E7 8AR. The practice has good transport links and is within easy reach of bus and train services providing direct access into Central London.

There is a clinical team of one lead GP and four regular GPs; one physician’s associate; two practice nurses; a physiotherapist; a clinical pharmacist and a healthcare assistant (HCA) and a social prescriber. Clinical staff are supported at the practice by a practice management team and a team of reception and administration staff.

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.

The practice reception is open Monday-Friday between 8am-6:30pm, extended hours are provided on Thursdays between 6.30pm – 8:30pm, and appointments are available between these times. Patients may book appointments online, by telephone or in person.

The practice is situated within the North-East London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 3307 (as of 01 September 2022). This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (four 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 60.3% Asian, 18.9% White, 14.5% Black, 3.5% Mixed, and 2.8% Other.

Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the pandemic and in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments were telephone consultations. If a GP or clinician needs to see a patient on a face-to-face basis, an appropriate appointment is offered.

Extended access and out of hours services are provided locally, where late evening and weekend appointments are available and can be accessed by calling the NHS111 telephone service.

Updated 18 October 2022

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Birchdale Road Medical Centre on 29 September 2022.

We previously carried out an announced inspection at Birchdale Road Medical Centre on 4 June 2019, when the practice was rated as good overall, for all key questions and areas except for caring and the practice was rated as requires improvement in this area.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection to review the rating for the key question of:

• Caring

How we carried out the inspection/review

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to complete this off-site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Speaking with staff using video conferencing.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.

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.

This practice remains as good overall.

We have rated the key question for caring as good because the practice had:

The provider had undertaken work to improve the achievement rates in the National GP Patient Survey. They had:

• Increased the rate of carers who had been identified and registered at the practice.
• Developed caring services for patients regarding preventative health services.
• Improved the practice emergency plan to incorporate planning in the circumstances of Pandemic Influenza and Coronavirus.
• Amended and improved the practice Mission Statement.
• Developing a five-year Business Plan with a focus on providing a compassionate caring service for patients.
• Developing caring services for patients regarding cancer screening services.
• We have not reviewed childhood immunisations achievement rates as this comes within the key question for providing effective care and treatment. However, we have reviewed the practice for providing caring preventative health services.
• Joining the Safe Surgeries initiative to enable practice staff to gain a better understand of the challenges faced by migrants.

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

• Continue to improve patient satisfaction achievement rates in the National GP Patient Survey (GPPS).

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