The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

The Ferns Medical Practice

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Farnham Centre For Health, Hale Road, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 9QS (01252) 723122

Provided and run by:
Farnham Park Health Group

All Inspections

6 July 2023

During a monthly review of our data

We carried out a review of the data available to us about The Ferns Medical Practice on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.

This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.

If you have concerns about The Ferns Medical Practice, you can give feedback on this service.

23 September 2019

During an inspection looking at part of the service

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

15 October 2014

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

This was a comprehensive inspection of the Ferns Medical Practice and was carried out on 15 October 2014.

Overall, we found the practice provided a good service. We found outstanding practice in the way the practice responded to the needs of  patients with long term conditions, families, children and young people and people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable, providing them with effective care and treatment. We found good practice in the way the practice responded to the needs of older people, working age people (including those recently retired and students) and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

Our key findings were as follows:

  • Patients expressed positive views concerning the level of respect shown to them by all staff members and stated they felt fully involved in their treatment.
  • There were effective infection control procedures in place and the premises appeared clean and well maintained.
  • The practice assists with the training of qualified doctors gaining experience of working in General Practice and of medical students, who are attached to the practice for a period during the final year of their course.
  • The practice provided GP appointments at times that met the needs of their patients.
  • The practice demonstrated effective communication processes throughout all areas.
  • The practice held weekly clinical meetings each Monday where they were able to discuss the complex needs of patients with other health professionals such as district nurses and social workers.
  • The practice had a green flag alert system in place to highlight to GPs those patients that held caring responsibilities. This system had proved invaluable should a carer have to go into hospital themselves for treatment and ensured the GP was aware that patient had caring responsibilities so could take responsive action as required.
  • The practice had an additional quiet waiting area separate to the main waiting area which proved invaluable for people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health (including people with dementia).

We saw several areas of outstanding practice including:

  • A nurse had undertaken specialist training to support patients with cancer care needs.
  • The practice ran two contraception clinics, one of which was a walk in arrangement the other was booked in advance.
  • The practice had a specific GP who specialised in drug and alcohol services who ran a weekly specialised substance misuse clinic for vulnerable patients.
  • The practice had long associated links with the local University and provided a health care team on student registration days. The health care team had identified and vaccinated students who had not had their Meningitis C immunisation before starting university.

However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make improvements. 

The provider should:

  • Ensure they have an effective system to manage correspondence about patients from external providers such as the Out of Hours provider.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice