Fleet Medical Centre

Updated 4 February 2019

Fleet Medical Centre is located at:Church RoadFleetHampshireGU51 4PE.

The premises building also contains a separate pharmacy and dental practice. Fleet Community Hospital is located next door to the practice.

The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver the following Regulated Activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Fleet Medical Centre is situated within the North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to approximately 14,500 patients. The practice is part of the Salus Medical Services federation.

The provider is a partnership of GPs, including a lead GP partner, who registered with the CQC in February 2013. The practice employs four GP partners, three salaried GPs and two long-term locum GPs. At the time of the inspection there was also one GP registrar attached to the practice. The practice also employs an advanced nurse practitioner, two paramedics, four practice nurses and three healthcare assistants. Alongside the clinical team, the practice employs a practice director, a deputy practice manager, a reception manager and practice administrator, as well as a team of administrators, receptionists and secretaries. The practice also has two reception apprentices.

The National General Practice Profile states that 93% of the practice population is from White background with a further 4.2% of the population originating from Asian backgrounds. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as ten, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 83 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 87 years compared to the national average of 83 years.

Updated 4 February 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Fleet Medical Centre on 13 December 2018 as part of our inspection programme.

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.

We found that:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm but infection prevention and control measures were not fully embedded.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Patient areas of the practice had been recently refurbished to be in line with the practice’s Dementia Friendly accreditation status.
• Duty of Candour was evidenced by the practice in response to complaints and significant events.
• The practice completed clinical audits to drive improvement for better patient outcomes.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. 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-centre care.

We saw one area of outstanding practice including:

• The practice had implemented a ‘Code 300’ protocol in order for patients experiencing a crisis with their condition and medical care could access a GP without an initial triage or delay in waiting for a clinician to call them back. We were told this was intended for short-term use by patients receiving palliative care or for those experiencing a mental health crisis. Patients would be advised to identify themselves as a ‘Code 300’ upon contacting the practice and receptionists would find the next available clinician to review without further triaging or questions being asked.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Improve the identification of carers to enable this group of patients to access the care and support they need.
• Continue to act upon the findings of infection prevention and control audit to enable full compliance with local guidelines.
• Continue to improve the uptake for cervical screening to achieve the national target of 80%.
• Review how the practice uses the patient participation group to maintain a patient feedback resource.
• Review how the practice maintains full oversight of staff training and records of completion.