Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Oakeswell Health Centre on 23rd September 2016. Overall the practice is rated as good.

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

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about the services provided 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 staff felt supported by management. The practice proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Oakeswell Health Centre is a general practice located in Wednesbury in the West Midlands. It is a training practice for fully qualified doctors to gain experience and higher qualifications in general practice and family medicine.

On the day of our inspection we spoke with nine patients who were all very complimentary about the care and treatment they received. They told us that all staff were welcoming, respectful and caring. All patients we spoke with told us that the appointment system for non urgent appointments needed to be improved. We reviewed 39 patient comment cards from our Care Quality Commission (CQC) comments box which we had asked to be placed in the practice prior to our inspection. There were 36 out of 39 patients who were extremely complimentary about the service. Eight patients gave negative comments about the length of time to get a non urgent appointment. All patients told us that emergency, urgent appointments were easily accessible for patients.

We found that the service was safe. Patients were protected from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. Performance was consistent over time and there were effective arrangements in place for reporting safety incidents. There were robust systems in place for safeguarding adults and children.

We found that the service was effective. Patients received care and treatment which achieved good outcomes, promoted a good quality of life and was based on the best available evidence.

We found that the staff treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Two patients told us that they felt there was not enough opportunity for confidentiality when at the reception desk. Staff confirmed that if a patient needed to discuss a confidential matter, they could ask to discuss this in a private room away from reception.

We found that the service was responsive. Services were organised to meet the diverse needs of the patients. The practice was aware of improvements needed to the appointments system for non urgent appointments and was regularly monitoring how it worked. New initiatives were being trialled to enable patients to have a non urgent appointment to meet their needs.

We found that the service was well led. The leadership, management and governance supported learning and innovation and promoted an open and fair culture. We saw that the processes in place provided assurance that high quality care was being delivered.

We reviewed the information available to us about Oakeswell Health Centre on 25 May 2019. We did not find evidence of significant changes to the quality of service being provided since the last inspection. As a result, we decided not to inspect the surgery at this time. We will continue to monitor this information about this service throughout the year and may inspect the surgery when we see evidence of potential changes.