Forge Close Surgery

Updated 16 January 2024

Forge Close Surgery is located at Forge Close, Hayes, Bromley, BR2 7LL.

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

The practice is situated within the NHS South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) and delivers Personal Medical Services (PMS) to a patient population of over 6,000. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices.

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the highest decile (10 of 10). The lower the decile, the more deprived the practice population is relative to others.

According to the latest available data, the ethnic make-up of the practice area is 4% Asian, 91% White, 2% Black, 2% Mixed, and 1% Other.

The practice is open between 8 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday. The practice offers a range of appointment types including book on the day, telephone consultations and advance appointments.

Extended access is provided locally by Hayeswick Primary Care Network, where late evening and weekend appointments are available.

Updated 16 January 2024

We carried out an announced assessment of Forge Close Surgery on 30 November 2023. The assessment focused on the responsive key question.

Following our previous inspection on 6 March 2019 the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions. The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Forge Close Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

The practice continues to be rated as good overall as this was the rating given at the last comprehensive inspection. However, we have now rated the responsive key question as requires improvement as a result of the findings of this focused assessment.

Safe - Good

Effective – Good

Caring – Good

Responsive – Requires improvement

Well-led - Good

Why we carried out this assessment

We carried out this assessment as part of our work to understand how practices are working to try to meet demand for access and to better understand the experiences of people who use services and providers. We recognise the work that GP practices have been engaged in to continue to provide safe, quality care to the people they serve. We know colleagues are doing this while demand for general practice remains exceptionally high, with more appointments being provided than ever. In this challenging context, access to general practice remains a concern for people. Our strategy makes a commitment to deliver regulation driven by people’s needs and experiences of care. These assessments of the responsive key question include looking at what practices are doing innovatively to improve patient access to primary care and sharing this information to drive improvement.

How we carried out the assessment

This assessment was carried out remotely. It did not include a site visit.

The process included:

• Conducting an interview with the provider and members of staff using video conferencing.
• Reviewing patient feedback from a range of sources
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• Reviewing data we hold about the service
• Seeking information/feedback from relevant stakeholders

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 found that:

• During the assessment process, the provider told us that they regularly monitored the availability of appointments.
• The provider invited patients to give feedback after each appointment and this feedback was shared with the PPG so that improvements could be made.
• The effect of these efforts are not reflected in the National GP Patient Survey results. The provider had performed below national ‘access’ averages for questions about their experience of making an appointment, satisfaction with appointment times and satisfaction with the appointments they were offered.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to identify ways of improving patient satisfaction in relation to their experience of making an appointment, appointment times and the appointments offered.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care