Updated 1 March 2024
The provider Birmingham and District General Practitioner Emergency Room Limited (BADGER) is registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities:
- Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely
- Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
Birmingham And District General Practitioner Emergency Room Limited (Badger) is the registered location and head office for the out-of-hours GP service provided by BADGER. The head office is based at Badger House, 121 Glover Street, Birmingham, B9 4EY.
The service provides a range of services including:
- In-hours and out-of-hours (OOH) GP services for its GP member practices.
- The provider has contracts with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (BSOL ICB) to provide urgent treatment and primary medical services in-hours and out-of-hours when GP practices are closed.
- The provider delivers GP services to St Giles Hospice in Whittington and to HMP Birmingham. We did not visit these locations as part of the inspection. These locations are registered independently with CQC and have been inspected under their respective registrations.
The service, which originally started as a GP co-operative, is a not for profit, social enterprise and holds the social enterprise mark (independently assessed criteria that provides assurance that profits are used to benefit the community).
The service covers a population of approximately 1.4 million and sees approximately 160,000 patients per year.
Patients access the out-of-hours service through NHS111 or directly by telephone if they are from one of the GP member practices that contract with Badger directly.
Patients who need to be seen face to face, can book an appointment at one of the urgent treatment centres, the drive-through service or be offered a home visit. Patients may also receive a telephone consultation with a clinician where a face to face appointment is not deemed necessary.
The service has a call centre which is located in Aston. The call centre is where calls are received, advice given and appointments booked.
The urgent treatment centres are located at:
- Erdington Stockland Green, Primary Care Centre, 192 Reservoir Road, Erdington, B23 6DJ. Open 10:30am to 11.00pm Monday to Sunday.
- Solihull Hospital, Lode Lane, Solihull, B91 2JL. Open 8am to 8pm Monday to Sunday.
- There is a drive-through service at 1-2 Bourne Road, Aston, Birmingham, B6 7RD. Open 7.00pm to 11.00pm Monday – Sunday.
The service is open for out-of-hours cover Monday to Friday 6.30pm to 8.30am and all weekend and on bank holidays.
The call centre is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As part of this inspection we visited the following sites:
- Aston Bourne Road call centre and drive-through service: 1-2 Bourne Road, Aston, Birmingham, B6 7RD
- The provider’s head office at the registered location Glover Street: Badger House, 121 Glover Street, Birmingham, B9 4EY.
- Urgent treatment centre at Solihull Hospital Lode Lane, Solihull, B91 2JL.
The service is led by a board of six GPs and the chief executive, elected by the member practices. The service has approximately 400 staff, some are directly employed by the organisation others such as the GPs work for the service on a self-employed contractor basis. The service provides training opportunities in the out-of-hours period for qualified doctors training to be GPs and for third year medical students.