Background to this inspection
Updated
6 September 2021
Forest Hill Group Practice is part of Southwark CCG and serves approximately 12,500 patients. The practice is registered with the CQC for the following regulated activities Maternity and Midwifery Services; Surgical Procedures; Diagnostic and Screening Procedures; Family Planning and Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury.
The practice population has a slightly higher proportion of working age people and slightly lower proportion of those over 65 than the national average. The surgery is based in an area with a deprivation score of 6 out of 10 (1 being the most deprived).
The practice is run by three GP partners; two female and one male. There are also three female and three male salaried GP. The practice is a teaching and training practice and has one GP trainee. The practice also trains primary care pharmacists though there is no sudent currently at the practice. The practice also employs a full-time advance nurse practitioner, three practice nurses and one full time pharmacists.
The practice is open at 8.00am every week day and closes at 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments are available during these hours. The practice offers 44 GP sessions per week.
Forest Hill Group Practice operates from a property with treatment and consulting rooms based over two floors with additional rooms used as office space or by other services that the practice hosts on the third floor. The service is accessible to patients with mobility issues. Staff told us that they could accommodate those with mobility issues on the ground floor but had also installed a stair lift to assist people accessing care on the upper floors.
Practice patients are directed to contact the local out of hours service when the surgery is closed and the practice can also book patients at a local GP hub which provides appointments from 8am until 8pm seven days per week.
The practice operates under a Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract and is signed up to a number of local and national enhanced services (enhanced services require an enhanced level of service provision above what is normally required under the core GP contract). The practice belonged to the South Southwark Primary Care Network.
Updated
6 September 2021
We carried out an announced focused review at Forest Hill Group Practice on 24 June 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.
Set out the ratings for each key question
Safe - Good
Effective - Good
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led - Good
Following our previous inspection on 16 January 2020, the practice was rated Good overall. The inspection focused on the following key questions: Effective, Responsive and Well-led. The practice was rated as requires improvement for providing Responsive services, and good for all population groups with the exception of working age people (including those recently retired and students) rated as requires improvement.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Forest Hill Group Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this review
This review was a focused review of information without undertaking a site visit inspection to follow up on on areas for improvement identified on 16 January 2020, in particular:
- The results from the national GP patient survey were below local and national averages.
- The practice had not undertaken their own patient survey.
- The Patient Participation Group (PPG) members felt that the practice did not listen to them.
- Patients continued to experience difficulties accessing the practice.
We also asked the practice to:
- Review the accessibility of the complaints process.
- Continue to monitor and review children attending for childhood immunisation and patients’ uptake for cancer screening.
How we carried out the review:
Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our reviews differently.
We requested evidence from the provider and reviewed the information provided, without undertaking a site visit.
Our findings
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 and good for all population groups.
We found that:
- Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs. The practice had acted on feedback to improve patient experience of accessing the service.
- The practice had made the improvements we asked them to make to the accessibility of the complaints process and provided evidence of actions taken to improve the uptake of childhood immunisations and patients’ uptake for cancer screening.
- The needs of the population groups had been identified and the practice had adjusted the services it offered to ensure these were accessible, flexible and offered continuity of care.
We also reviewed the areas we identified where the provider should make improvement:
- The practice had reviewed how patients were informed about how to make a complaint and had ensured the practice complaints policy was available to patients in the reception area.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Continue to review and monitor patient access, and develop patient surveys as part of the quality improvement programme.
- Continue to listen to the Patient Participation Group and act on feedback to improve patient experience.
- Continue to embed systems to ensure regular audits are undertaken and reviewed to monitor quality and performance and to encourage improvement.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care