Updated 18 July 2022
Tessa Jowell Health Centre is the base hub for the out of hours service for the South East London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham. The location is based at 72 East Dulwich Grove, London, SE22 8EY. The service has a satellite service in Lewisham at St John’s Medical Centre, 56-60 Loampit Hill, London SE13 7SX. The provider is SELDOC who have responsibility for two out of hours services in London, and they are a GP co-operative within this region who are directly contracted to provide out of hours care at two hubs, and home visiting services.
The Tessa Jowell Health Centre is the larger of the two locations and has four consulting rooms which are utilised by a variety of medical professionals, although a general practitioner is always on site. The home visiting service is based at this hub. The Lewisham location is open at weekends only, and has a single consulting room.
The service covers a large urban area, with large populations of both high and low deprivation. The populations of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham include a large number of different nationalities and there are substantial populations of patients from ethnic minorities.
The service manages approximately 800 face to face consultations at the two hubs and 200 home visits per calendar month depending on the time of year. The service also provides overflow support to the local clinical assessment service (CAS).
The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
During the inspection we utilised a number of methods to support our judgement of the services provided. For example, we interviewed staff, and reviewed documents relating to the service.
To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:
- Is it safe?
- Is it effective?
- Is it caring?
- Is it responsive to people’s needs?
- Is it well-led?
These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.