Friern Barnet Medical Centre

Updated 26 April 2017

Friern Barnet Medical Centre is located in Barnet, North London. The practice holds a General Medical Services (GMS) contract with NHS England. This is a contract between NHS England and general practices for delivering general medical services. Friern Barnet Medical Centre is a training practice for trainee GPs.

The practice is open between 8.30am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 6.30pm Monday to Friday (except Thursday when it is open until 1.00pm). Outside of these times, cover is provided by an out of hours provider. Appointment times are as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9.00am to 12.00pm and 3.00pm to 5.30pm; Thursdays 9.00am-12.00pm. In addition to pre-bookable appointments, urgent appointments and home visits are also available for people that need them. Patients under the age of two or over the age of 80 automatically receive a same-day appointment.

The practice has a patient list of 7164. Approximately 5% of patients are aged 75 or older and approximately 21% are under 18 years old. Forty nine percent have a long standing health condition and 11% have carer responsibilities.

The services provided include child health care, ante and post-natal care, immunisations, sexual health and contraception advice and management of long term conditions clinics. The staff team comprises two partner GPs (one male, one female), three part time salaried GPs (two female, two male), one female practice nurse, one female health care assistant, one GP trainer, one foundation doctor, apractice manager and a range of administrative staff. Languages spoken by the staff team in addition to Enlgish include Turkish, Gujarati, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu, which reflects the local population.

Updated 26 April 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Friern Barnet Medical Practice on 1 July 2015. The overall rating for the practice was good, with a requires improvement rating for the safe key question. The full comprehensive report can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Friern Barnet Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 19 January 2017 to confirm the practice had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the practice is still rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The practice used a system to ensure vaccines were safely stored and managed, including an effective ‘cold chain’ policy.
• Patient Group Directions and Patient Specific Directions were up to date and signed by a principal GP and all appropriate staff who used them to administer vaccines or medicines.
• An annual infection control audit had taken place and an action plan was in place.
• There was evidence that the practice complaints system was used to make improvements to care.

All of the areas for improvement and breaches of regulation had been addressed.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people with long-term conditions. The practice nurse had a lead role in chronic disease management. Longer appointments and home visits were available when needed. All these patients had a named GP and a structured annual review to check that their health and medication needs were being met. For those people with the most complex needs, the named GP worked with relevant health and care professionals to deliver a multidisciplinary package of care.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of families, children and young people. There were systems in place to identify and follow up children living in disadvantaged circumstances and who were at risk, for example, children and young people who had a high number of A&E attendances. Immunisation rates were relatively high for all standard childhood immunisations. Patients told us that children and young people were treated in an age-appropriate way and were recognised as individuals. Appointments were available outside of school hours and the premises were suitable for children and babies.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of older people. Nationally reported data showed that outcomes for patients were good for conditions commonly found in older people. The practice offered proactive, personalised care to meet the needs of the older people in its population and had a range of enhanced services, for example, in dementia and end of life care. It was responsive to the needs of older people, and offered home visits and rapid access appointments for those with enhanced needs.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of working-age people (including those recently retired and students). The needs of the working age population, those recently retired and students had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care. For example, the practice offered urgent appointments and GP led telephone triage and was also proactive in offering online services such as repeat prescriptions; as well as a full range of health promotion and screening that reflected the needs of this age group.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia). The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of people experiencing poor mental health, including those with dementia. It also had a system in place to follow up patients who had attended accident and emergency (A&E) where they may have been experiencing poor mental health. Staff had received training on how to care for people with mental health needs and Dementia. The practice had told patients experiencing poor mental health about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations.

Updated 10 December 2015

The practice is rated as good for the care of people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable. The practice held a register of patients living in vulnerable circumstances including those who had experienced domestic violence and those with a learning disability (for whom longer appointments were offered). The manager of a local care home where several patients with a learning disability lived was positive about care and treatment provided by the practice.

The practice regularly worked with multi-disciplinary teams in the case management of vulnerable people. It had told vulnerable patients about how to access various support groups and voluntary organisations. Staff knew how to recognise signs of abuse in vulnerable adults and children. Staff were aware of their responsibilities regarding information sharing, documentation of safeguarding concerns and how to contact relevant agencies in normal working hours and out of hours.