Updated 29 June 2017
The South Birmingham GP Walk-in Centre provider organisation is South Doc Services which is a GP co-operative based in South Birmingham.
The centre is located in a purpose-built health centre in Selly Oak, South Birmingham. The centre is visited by patients from the south Birmingham area, which has a population of around 300,000 people. 47% of patients in this area are from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups compared with the England average of 20%.
The service opened in June 2009 and provides urgent care services between 8am and 8pm 365 days a year, including public holidays. The walk-in service is available to any patient who is entitled to receive NHS treatment in the UK, including those not currently registered with a GP. From 1 January to 31 December 2016 the service had seen 61,662 patients.
The premises is fully accessible to wheelchair users. It is served by the local bus network and there is accessible parking including dedicated disabled spaces.
The service employs a total of 78 staff which consists of 21 permanent staff, five bank staff and 52 sessional staff. All clinical staff working at the service are able to prescribe medicines (GPs or Advanced Nurse Practitioners). There is a minimum of two clinical prescribing staff on duty at any one time (one of which will always be a GP) up to a maximum of seven at busy periods, such as bank holidays. There are three or four clinical staff on duty at most times which includes a mix of female and male practitioners. All of the GPs who work at the service are also employed at local GP practices in the South Birmingham area. There are five consulting rooms available.
The clinical staff are supported by a Centre Manager, a Deputy Centre Manager, a Reception Manager, and a team of reception and administrative staff.
We previously inspected the centre during January 2014, and found recruitment processes did not ensure appropriate criminal records checks were undertaken to protect patients. At our inspection on 28 March 2017 we found that the service had carried out and recorded the findings of all recruitment checks, including criminal records checks.