Aveley Medical Centre

Updated 10 January 2024

Aveley Medical Centre is located in South Ockendon, Essex at

22 High St,

Aveley,

South Ockendon

RM15 4AD

The practice has a branch surgery at:

Bluebell Surgery

Darenth Ln,

South Ockendon

RM15 5LP

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 and surgical procedures. 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 Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 12,300. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices within Tilbury and Chadwell primary care network.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the fourth lowest decile (4 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic makeup of the practice area is 1.7% Asian, 88.8% White, 7.2 % Black, 1.2% Mixed, and 0.5% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages. There are more male patients than females registered at the practice and more working-age than older and young patients registered at the practice.

There is a team of 7 GPs who provide cover at all practices, 4 advanced care practitioners, 4 nurses who provide nurse-led clinics for long-term conditions of use of both the main and the branch locations. There are 2 pharmacists, 2 health care assistants and 1 paramedic. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff. The practice manager and assistant 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 locally by Tilbury and Chadwell PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available with a clinical pharmacist. Out-of-hours services are provided by NHS 111.

Updated 10 January 2024

We carried out a targeted assessment of Aveley Medical Centre on 28 November 2023 without a site visit. Overall, the practice is rated as good. We rated the key question of responsive as requires improvement.

Safe -good

Effective – good

Caring - good

Responsive – requires improvement

Well led – good

Following our previous inspection in August 2021, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions. At this inspection, we rated the practice requires improvement for providing responsive services.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to undertake a targeted assessment of the key question of responsive.

How we carried out the inspection/review

This inspection was carried out remotely.

This included:

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

We found that:

• The practice was implementing changes based on a consistent decline in patient satisfaction reported within the GP national patient survey data since 2019.
• The practice increased education for patient monitoring and health education by using technology advancements.
• Accessing the practice was made easier for patients, including a new telephone system to avoid long waiting times.
• Patients with mental health conditions could have negative experiences of feeling understood when requiring access to the practice.
• The practice was taking part in the National General Practice Improvement Programme to provide a modernised approach to staff training, continuity of care, and access.

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

• Continue to monitor and audit patient feedback to improve patient feedback about phone access and appointment availability

.

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