The Orchard Surgery

Background to this inspection

Updated 3 March 2017

The Orchard Surgery is based in a converted house in a residential area of Ashford. The premises have been adapted to provide primary care services and include a consulting room and treatment room on the ground floor and a consulting room on the first floor. There are stairs with a stair rail and patients who can’t manage the stairs are seen downstairs. The premises have been modernised and provide good facilities. There are good transport links and parking in the road outside.

The practice operates from:

107 Feltham Hill Road

Ashford

Surrey

TW15 1HH

There are approximately 2,415 patients registered at the practice. Statistics show little income deprivation among the registered population. The registered population is lower than average for under 44 year olds and higher than average for those aged over 45, in particular it is much higher than average for males aged 45- 54. Public health data shows an estimate of ethnic groups including 7.3 % Asian, 2.4% mixed and 1.9% black.

There are two partners who both work part time. In addition there are two regular locum GPs who each work one session a week. There are three female GPs and one male GP. There is one practice nurse (working every morning), a practice manager (working two days a week), an office manager (working every morning) and a team of four receptionists (working part time).

Orchard surgery is open from 8am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday except on Wednesday afternoons when the surgery is shut. Appointments are from 8.30am to 11am and 3pm to 5.10pm (except on Wednesday afternoons). In addition the practice offers extended hours opening with appointments from 7.15am on Thursdays. Patients can book appointments in person, by phone or on line.

Patients requiring a GP outside of normal working hours are advised to contact the NHS GP out of hours service on telephone number 111.

The practice has a General Medical Services (GMS) contract.

Overall inspection

Good

Updated 3 March 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Orchard Surgery on 26 May 2016. During this inspection we found breaches of legal requirement and the provider was rated as requires improvement under the safe and well led domains. The full comprehensive report on the May 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Orchard Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk. The practice sent to us an action plan detailing what they would do to meet the legal requirements in relation to the following:-

Developing their governance systems in relation to holding regular meetings regarding practice performance and ensuring these are documented and communicated to all relevant staff.
Ensuring that all recruitment checks are completed in line with their practice policy in relation to obtaining written references prior to employment.
Ensuring that risk assessments were regularly reviewed and embedded within their practice system.

Additionally we found that:

The practice needed to continue to monitor their performance in diabetes management to ensure patient outcomes are managed effectively.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 2 February 2017 to confirm that 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 on 26 May 2016. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection..

Overall the practice is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

The practice were now holding regular partner, practice and reception meetings and ensuring that these were properly recorded and disseminated to all relevant parties.
The practice were now complying with their practice recruitment policy and ensuring all relevant employment checks were undertaken before employment started.
The practice had undertaken the required risk assessment for not having a defibrillator and ensured that all staff had understood its contents.
The practice had monitored their performance in diabetes management and the latest data showed that improvements had been made.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP)

Chief Inspector of General Practice