Background to this inspection
Updated
17 September 2021
Crankhall Lane Medical Centre is located in Wednesbury, an area of the West Midlands at:
156 Crankhall Lane
Wednesbury
WS10 0EB
We visited Crankhall Lane Medical Centre as part of this inspection.
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.
The practice is situated within the Sandwell & West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 4,140 patients. This is part of a contract held with NHS England. It is a single-handed GP practice. The practice is part of Health Vision Primary Care Network, a wider network of eight 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 first lowest decile (one of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others. The age profile demonstrates a slightly lower proportion of older patients, and higher numbers of younger patients compared to local and national averages:
- The percentage of older people registered with the practice is 15.5% which is comparable with the CCG average of 15.6%, however lower than the national average of 17.6%.
- The percentage of young people registered with the practice is 24.3% which is above the CCG average of 22.7%, and the national average of 20.1%.
The National General Practice Profile describes the practice ethnicity as being predominantly white at 84.3% of the registered patients, with estimates of 0.6% mixed race, 9% Asian, 3.5% Black and 2.6% other groups.
There is a team of two GPs, two GP Registrars, a practice nurse, a nurse associate and a clinical pharmacist. The team are supported by a practice manager and a team of receptionists and administration staff.
Due to the enhanced infection prevention and control measures put in place since the Covid-19 pandemic and, in line with the national guidance, most GP appointments are telephone consultations. If the GP needs to see a patient face-to-face then the patient is offered an appointment at the practice. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111.
Updated
17 September 2021
We carried out an announced, follow-up comprehensive inspection at Crankhall Lane Medical Centre on 27 August, 2 September, 7 and 8 September 2021. The practice is rated as good overall and in all key questions.
Following our previous inspection on 13 January 2020, the practice was rated requires improvement overall, inadequate in safe, requires improvement in effective and well-led, good in caring and responsive.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Crankhall Lane Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection.
This inspection was a comprehensive, follow-up inspection to follow up on:
- Breaches in regulations relating to safe care and treatment and good governance.
- A best practice recommendation:
Take action to gain a holistic understanding of data which indicates a low uptake of childhood immunisations as well as national screening programmes such as cervical screening and take action to improve the uptake.
How we carried out the inspection.
Throughout the Covid-19 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 inspections differently.
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. 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
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
- Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
- Requesting evidence from the provider
- A short site visit
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 except
people with long-term conditions which we rated as requires improvement.
We found that:
- The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
- There were systems in place for monitoring patients prescribed high-risk medicines which the provider updated during our inspection to ensure their effectiveness.
- The practice had put systems in place to improve health outcomes for patients with long-term conditions. We saw unverified data that demonstrated this.
- We found that cervical screening uptake rates were improving over time due to the actions taken by the practice.
- The practice had been awarded a gold standard award for the quality of care they provided to patients with a learning disability.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Embed into practice the changes made in the monitoring of patients prescribed high-risk medicines or medicines that are subject to Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts.
- Continue to take action to improve the uptake of cervical screening.
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