The Ferns Medical Practice

Updated 18 November 2019

The Ferns Medical Practice is located within the Farnham Centre for Health, Upper Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey. The practice is situated within a modern hospital complex and operates from a modern, purpose built, spacious premises over two floors.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning; maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The Ferns Medical Practice is part of the North East Hampshire and Farnham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides services to approximately 10600 patients under the terms of a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. This is a contract between general practices and NHS England for delivering services to the local community. The Ferns Medical Practice is part of the local federation of GP practices – Farnham Integrated Care Services (FICS) and as such patients have access to the range of enhanced services offered by FICS.

The provider has eight GPs, seven female and one male. There are five practice nurse sisters and one health care assistant. The clinical team is supported by several administrative staff including the practice and business managers.

Patient population data largely follows the national average for age demographics and life expectancy. The National General Practice Profile states that 95% of the practice population is white with a further 4% of the population originating from black, mixed or other non-white ethnic groups. Information published by Public Health England, rates the level of deprivation within the practice population group as 10, on a scale of one to 10. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level 10 the lowest. Both male and female life expectancy is above the national average.

Updated 18 November 2019

We carried out a new style focused inspection inspection at The Ferns Medical Practice on 23 September 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

We carried out an inspection of this service due to the length of time since the last inspection which was undertaken on 15 October 2014 where the practice was rated good overall and outstanding for responsive. Following our review of the information available to us, including information provided by the practice, we focused our inspection on the following key questions:

• Effective
• Responsive
• Well-led

Because of the assurance received from our review of information we carried forward the ratings from the last inspection for the following key questions:

• Safe
• Caring

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. The practice was previously rated as outstanding for responsive, at this inspection responsive has now been rated as good, however the practice has been rated as outstanding for providing responsive services to the population group people experiencing poor mental health including dementia. Full details can be found in the evidence table.

We found that:

• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The practice sought additional support and training to enhance understanding and care provided for their patient population groups for example the student population and mental health support.
• The practice had maintained established close working with councillors at the local university in order to provide ongoing mental health support to the student population registered with the practice.
• The practice had undertaken audits to review quality of care and make improvements to systems and processes for example a review of deaths and the palliative care register had resulted in strengthened communication with other organisations and improved reporting processes.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way. The practice had recognised patient concerns about the telephone system and had arranged meetings to identify new and improved solutions.
• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.
• The practice was part of two local federations in order to allow patients to have access to enhanced services and new initiatives to treatment and care.

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

Updated 18 November 2019

Updated 18 November 2019

Updated 18 November 2019

Updated 18 November 2019

Updated 18 November 2019

Updated 18 November 2019