Archived: Dr Patrick Lai Chung Fong Also known as Gloucester Road Surgery

Updated 4 February 2022

Dr Patrick Lai Chung Fong (also known as Gloucester Road Surgery) is located in Barnet, North London. The practice is located in privately owned premises on the corner of a main road and residential street. There is parking available on site, as well as on street parking. Bus stops are located approximately five minutes’ walk from the surgery, allowing easy access to local transport hubs including Arnos Grove and High Barnet underground stations.

There are approximately 1900 patients registered at the practice (which has a deprivation score of 8 out 10 (1 being the most deprived)). The practice cares for a diverse population (with approximately 25% of its patients from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds). Gloucester Road Surgery is part of NHS Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and provides NHS services through a General Medical Services (GMS) contract. A GMS contract is a contract which is held between the practice and NHS England for delivering primary care services to local communities.

The practice’s clinical team is led by a male lead GP (ten sessions per week), supported by a female salaried GP working one session per week. A female practice nurse works part time and a primary care network funded clinical pharmacist works one remote session per week.

The clinical team are supported by two job sharing practice managers and a team of reception/administration staff.

The practice is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The practice’s opening hours are 8:00am to 6:30pm on weekdays. Patients can also book appointments to be seen at local hub centres between 6:30pm and 8:30pm on weekdays and 8:00am to 8:00pm at weekends.

Updated 4 February 2022

We carried out an announced focussed inspection at Gloucester Road Surgery on 6 December 2021. Overall, the practice is rated as Good.

Safe - Good

Effective -Good

Responsive - Good

Well-led - Good

Following our previous inspection on 7 June 2017, 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 Gloucester Road Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a focused inspection to follow up on information of concern including potential issues with access to appointments.

How we carried out the inspection

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 inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider
• Requesting evidence from the provider
• A short 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

We found that:

• The practice provided a sufficient number and range of appointments but we noted appointments access, including telephone access, was not being routinely monitored.
• When something went wrong, there was an appropriate, thorough review that involved all relevant staff. Lessons were learned and communicated to support improvement.
• There was evidence of systems for learning and continuous improvement (including use of clinical audit).
• Although childhood immunisations and cervical screening uptake rates were below local and national averages, we noted this was in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The practice was monitoring and actively seeking to improve performance.
• Patients generally received effective care and treatment that met their needs, although our remote clinical records review highlighted some instances where patients’ treatment was not being regularly reviewed.
• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• We saw scope for improved governance regarding conducting fire safety risk assessments and regarding assessing risks associated with a bacterium called Legionella (which can proliferate in building water systems). Overall however, practice management supported the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

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

• Take action to monitor appointments access.
• Continue to monitor and take action to improve child immunisation and cervical screening uptake rates.
• Take action to review Legionella and fire safety governance arrangements.
• Review systems for timely medication review of patients with long term conditions.

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