Fernley Medical Centre

Updated 11 December 2023

Fernley Medical Centre is located in Birmingham at:

560 Stratford Road

Sparkhill

Birmingham

B11 4AN

The provider has another location (separately registered with CQC) at The Hill General Practice at Sparkhill Primary Care Centre.

The practice is located in a converted Victorian house for the purposes of providing primary medical services. The practice is situated on a main road with no designated patient parking. However, patients can park on side streets nearby. There are also several pharmacies close to the practice.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 8,500. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of the Balsall Heath and Sparkhill Primary Care Network (PCN). A PCN is a wider network of GP practices that work together to address local priorities in patient care.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the lowest decile (one 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 65.7% Asian, 21.9% White, 5.4% Black, 3% Mixed, and 3.9% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population shows the practice is slightly younger than local and national averages. The ration of male and female patients registered at the practice is broadly similar.

The practice team consists of 2 partners (one clinical and one non-clinical), 2 salaried GPs and 7 regular locum GPs. Other clinical staff include a practice nurse, a healthcare assistant and a clinical pharmacist. Non-clinical staff consist of a practice manager and a team of administrative staff.

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.

The practice hosts the extended access hub for the locality providing appointments Monday to Friday between 6.30pm and 8pm and on a Saturday between 9am and 5pm.

When the practice is closed primary medical services are provided through an out of hours provider (BADGER).

Updated 11 December 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fernley Medical Centre on 9 November 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

The ratings for each key question are as follows:

Safe - good

Effective - good

Caring - good

Responsive - requires improvement

Well-led – good

Following our previous inspection in April 2016, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection in line with our inspection priorities. The focus of the inspection included a review of all key questions.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing and in person.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A site visit.
• Conversations with members of the practice’s patient participation group.

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 provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. This included areas such as safeguarding, recruitment, infection prevention and control and the management of the premises and associated risks.
• There were effective systems in place to learn from incidents and complaints.
• Our review of clinical records found safe management of medicines, including those that required ongoing monitoring due to adverse side effects.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. Our review of clinical records demonstrated that patients at risk of long-term conditions were well managed.
• Staff received appropriate training, supervision and support for their roles and responsibilities.
• Some of the childhood immunisations uptake indicators and cancer screening programmes were below national targets and national averages.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. Patient feedback from various sources was mostly positive about the service.
• Patients were mostly able to access care and treatment in a timely way. The practice hosted the extended access service. However, results from the latest GP national patient survey were below local and national averages for questions about access.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

• Take further action to improve the uptake of childhood immunisations and cancer screening programmes.
• Continue to monitor access to ensure improvements are being delivered in relation to patient satisfaction and take further action as needed.

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