Croft Medical Centre

Updated 9 January 2018

Croft Medical Centre is based in the Chelmsley Wood area of the West Midlands. There are approximately 10700 patients of various ages registered and cared for at the practice. The practice has seen an increase in the number of patients joining the practice with 1000 patients registered in the past 12 months.

The practice has a General Medical Services contract (GMS) with NHS England. A GMS contract ensures practices provide essential services for people who are sick as well as, for example, chronic disease management and end of life care. The practice also provides some enhanced services such as minor surgery, childhood vaccination and immunisation schemes. The area served has higher deprivation compared to England as a whole.

There are three GP partners (2 male, 1 female) and three salaried GPs (female). The nursing team consists of two nurse practitioners (1 male, 1 female) 1 specialist nurse prescriber (female), four nurses and two health care assistants. The non-clinical team consists of a practice manager, assistant practice manager, administrative and reception staff. The practice is a teaching practice for the University of Warwick medical school. The practice also has close links with Birmingham City University and supports the training of nurses.

The practice is open to patients between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Extended hours and additional appointments are available after 6.30pm on selected weekday evenings, with flexibility to increase availability as pressures for appointments increase. Emergency appointments are available daily. Telephone consultations and home visits for patients who are unable to attend the surgery are available. The out of hours service is provided by the NHS 111 service. Information about this is available on the practice website.

The practice is part of NHS Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which has 38 member practices. A CCG is an NHS Organisation that brings together local GPs and experienced health care professionals to take on commissioning responsibilities for local health services.

Updated 9 January 2018

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 23 November 2017 to follow up on breaches of regulations identified in our inspection in April 2017.

This practice is rated as Good overall. (At the previous inspection on 26 April 2017 the practice was rated as requires improvement in safe, caring and responsive with good in effective and well led; with an overall rating for the practice of requires improvement). Although the practice had taken action to address areas for improvement it was too soon for the outcome of these actions to demonstrate impact, such as improvements to telephone access. The practice is still rated as requires improvement for providing responsive services.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Requires improvement

Are services well-led? - Good

As part of our inspection process, we also look at the quality of care for specific population groups. The population groups are rated as:

Older People – Good

People with long-term conditions – Good

Families, children and young people – Good

Working age people (including those recently retired and students – Good

People whose circumstances may make them vulnerable – Good

People experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia) - Good

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had systems and processes to minimise risks to patient safety. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Learning was shared with staff and outcomes had been actioned.
• The system for recording, actioning and tracking patient safety alerts had been improved and demonstrated that all alerts had been reviewed and action taken where appropriate. All alerts were reviewed in clinical meetings.
• All appropriate recruitment checks had been carried out on staff prior to being employed by the practice. This included medical indemnity checks carried out on locum GPs employed.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. This included appropriate arrangements for equipment and medicines that may be required to respond to a medical emergency.
• Information about services and how to complain was available to patients. The practice made improvements to the quality of care as a result of learning from complaints and concerns.
• There was a practice development plan that documented both their long and short-term priorities. This included actions they had taken in response to patient feedback about the difficulty in accessing appointments, and the plans for continued improvements.
• The practice had visible clinical and managerial leadership with audit arrangements in place to monitor quality.

There were areas where the provider should make improvements:

• The practice should continue to work towards improving access and measure the impact of changes to improve it.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 9 January 2018

Updated 9 January 2018

Updated 9 January 2018

Updated 9 January 2018

Updated 9 January 2018

Updated 9 January 2018