Athena Medical Centre

Updated 3 January 2024

Athena Medical Centre is located in Hackney at:

21 Atherden Road

London

E5 0QP

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 and surgical procedures.

The practice is situated within the Northeast London Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) a patient population of about 4,990. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices Hackney Marshes Primary Care Network.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third decile (3 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 15..4% Asian, 47.7% White, 26.2% Black, 6.6% Mixed and other 4.1%.

There are two partner GPs (one male and one female) and three long term locum GPs (two male and one female). The practice also employs two part time nurses and part time two healthcare assistants. There is a practice manager and six administrative and reception staff.

The practice is open between 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Patients were able to access an extended hours service at the primary care network practices, these offered Monday to Friday 6pm to 8pm appointments and Saturday and Sunday 9am to 5pm appointments at the 5 practices.

Updated 3 January 2024

We carried out an announced focused assessment of the key question responsive at Athena Medical Centre on 12 December 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as good and the key question for providing a responsive service is now rated good.

Safe - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Effective - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Caring - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Responsive – Good.

Well-led - not inspected, rating of good carried forward from previous inspection.

Following our previous inspection in January 2020 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Athena Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection.

We carried out this assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet peoples demands for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers.

We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know staff are carrying this out whilst the demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. However, this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people.

Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. These assessments of the responsive key question include looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement.

How we carried out the assessment

This assessment was carried out remotely. It did not include a site visit.

The process included:

• Conducting an interview with the provider and members of staff using video conferencing.
• Reviewing patient feedback from a range of sources.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• Reviewing data, we hold about the provider.
• Seeking information/feedback from relevant stakeholders.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the responsive key question on a combination of:

• what we found when we met with the provider
• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and information from the provider,patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

• The practice had monitored patient access and made improvements to enable them to remain above the GP patients survey national average.
• The practice had responded to patient feedback and made and continues to make improvements to patient access.
• The practice had organised and delivered services to meet patient’s needs.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to improve patient access.
• Review the Health Education England (HEE) guidance care Navigation | Competency Framework​ for reception staff.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care