Background to this inspection
Updated
14 July 2021
Essington Medical Centre is located in Essington, Wolverhampton at:
Hodnock Road
Essington
Wolverhampton
WV11 2RF
The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.
The practice is situated within the Cannock Chase Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers an Alternative Provider Medical Services (APMS) to a patient population of about 2,787. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.
The practice is part of Cannock Villages Primary Care Network, a wider network of 10 GP practices that work collaboratively to deliver primary care services.
Information published by Public Health England shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the six lowest decile (six 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 95.6% White, 1.8% Asian, 1.6% Mixed, 0.6%% Black and 0.4% Other.
The age profile for the practice demonstrates a higher proportion of older patients and young people compared to the local and national averages, and lower numbers of working age patients compared to local and national averages. There are more female patients registered at the practice compared to males.
There is a team of three GP partners. The practice has one nurse and two health care assistants who provide nurse led clinic’s for long-term conditions. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception/administration staff.
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 the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered this type of appointment.
Extended access is provided locally through the alliance, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by Vocare via NHS 111.
Updated
14 July 2021
We carried out an announced review at Essington Medical Centre on 9 June 2021 to follow up on the findings from the last inspection on 13 November 2019. During the inspection on 13 November 2019 the practice was rated good overall and for the key questions safe, effective, caring and, responsive and rated requires improvement for providing a well-led service.
Due to assurances we received from our review of information, we carried forward the ratings for the following key questions: safe, effective, caring and responsive from our last inspection in November 2019.
Following our review of the information available to us, including information provided by the practice, we focused our inspection on the following key question: well-led.
Overall, the practice is rated as Good. Following our review on 9 June 2021, it is rated as good in safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led, as well as good in all of the population groups.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Essington Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this review
This review was a review of information without undertaking a site visit inspection to follow up on:
- Well-led domain
- The breach of regulations identified in the previous inspection
- Areas for improvement identified in the previous inspection
- Ratings were carried forward from the previous inspection which included the safe, effective, caring and responsive domains.
How we carried out the 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 reviews differently.
This review was carried out in a way which did not involve visiting the practice. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
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 have rated this practice as Good overall and good for all population groups.
We found that:
- The practice had actioned and put measures in place to comply with the Regulatory breach.
- Although the advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) no longer saw patients at this practice, a risk assessment had been completed for when they worked without GP supervision on site.
- The PAT testing had been completed in January 2020, and repeated on 8 June 2021, following a delay due to the pandemic. The premises electrical safety check was booked for 14 July 2021.
- Risk assessments had been completed for emergency medicines not held at the practice.
- A formal process had been introduced for documenting that registration checks of clinical staff had been undertaken and were regularly monitored.
- An staff immunisation history form had been introduced and action taken when required, to ensure staff were up to date with immunisations.
- Systems were in place to monitor that staff were up to date with their essential training, although due to the pandemic some training was overdue. Action was being taken to support staff to complete any outstanding training.
- The practice had developed a succession plan.
- The mission statement was displayed around the practice and staff had received a copy.
- The practice understood their roles and responsibilities in relation to submitting notifications to the Commission.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care