Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Bathla and Partners practice on 30 November 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. All opportunities for learning from internal and external incidents were maximised.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.

• Feedback from patients about their care was consistently positive.

• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Patients said they found it easy to make an appointment with a named GP and there was continuity of care, with urgent appointments available the same day.
• The practice had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and they had detailed knowledge of the population groups, the clinical conditions that exist in their area and the challenges that they face.
• The practice worked closely with other organisations and with the local community in planning how services were provided to ensure that they meet patients' needs.
• The practice implemented suggestions for improvements and made changes to the way it delivered services as a consequence of feedback from patients and from the patient participation group.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• Staff competencies were assessed annually by external specialists for example, public health nurse for annual health checks, The practice initiated this quality assurance process to support staff with their personal development, to provide the management team with validation and reassurance that work was completed correctly, providing evidence of the quality of service provided. Staff told us on the day that this process gave them confidence and demonstrated that the practice were interested in their development. This initiative resulted in increased diagnosis of patients suffering with Dementia, atrial fibrillation and hypertension, with increased referrals for healthy living advice.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• The practice should continue to support patients to attend the national screening programmes.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Dr Bathla & Partners is situated at the Soho Road Primary Care Centre, Birmingham, and provides primary medical services to people in Handsworth and the surrounding areas. Access to a GP outside of practice hours is through the NHS 111 service. At the time of this inspection approximately 8200 patients were registered with Dr Bathla & Partners.

Practice staff comprised of three partners, which included two GPs and the practice manager, four other GPs, two trainee GPs, two practice nurses and several administration and reception personnel.

We spoke with 17 patients. They told us that they were happy to be registered at the surgery and expressed satisfaction at the services received.

As part of the inspection we also spoke with the Local Medical Committee which represents the GPs, the Clinical Commissioning Group which is the NHS body responsible for providing GP service, and the NHS Local Area Team, which monitors the quality of the services provided by the practice. They all told us that the practice worked with them to provide a local GP service for the population.

We found that the practice was safe, effective, caring, well led, and responsive. The practice had adequate arrangements to provide healthcare services for older people aged over 75; people with long-term conditions; mothers, babies, children and young people; the working age population and those recently retired (aged up to 74); people in vulnerable circumstances who may have poor access to primary care; and people experiencing a mental health problem.

Please note that when referring to information throughout this report, for example any reference to the Quality and Outcomes Framework data, this relates to the most recent information available to the CQC at that time.