Forest Health Group

Updated 20 May 2022

Forest Health Group is located in Bracknell and there are three sites which provide regulated activities (one main site and two branches):

Main site:

Ringmead

Birchmill

Berkshire

RG12 7PG

Branch sites:

Skimped Hill Lane,

Bracknell,

Berkshire,

RG12 1LH

Mount Lane
Bracknell
Berkshire
RG12 9PG

We visited the main site only during this inspection.

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the following Regulated Activities:

• Diagnostic and Screening Procedures
• Maternity and Midwifery Services
• Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury
• Surgical Procedures
• Family Planning Services

The practice is part of Frimley Clinical Commissioning Group.

There are nine GPs working at the practice. There are also four practice nurses and two healthcare assistants (HCAs). The clinical team are supported by a management team including a practice manager. There are a variety of administration and support staff working across all sites.

There are higher than average number of patients under the age of 18 and fewer patients aged over 65 than the national average. The National General Practice Profile states that 9% of the practice population is 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 nine, on a scale of one to ten. Level one represents the highest levels of deprivation and level ten the lowest. Male life expectancy is 80 years compared to the national average of 79 years. Female life expectancy is 84 years compared to the national average of 83 years.

The practice does not provide Out of Hours (OOH) GP services when the practice is closed. Patients can access OOH services by contacting the NHS 111 telephone service.

Updated 20 May 2022

We carried out an announced focused follow up inspection at Forest Health Group on 14 April 2022 to identify if improvements had been made following our previous inspection in October 2021. The 2021 inspection led to a rating of good overall but a rating of requires improvement in the provision of safe services and we identified a breach of regulation. We issued the provider with a requirement notice in order for the service to make improvements. This inspection was to ensure the breach of regulation had been met and provide a new rating in the single domain of safe.

Ratings:

Overall Rating – Good

Safe - Good

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Forest Health Group on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

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.

The inspection included:

• Requesting evidence from the provider in advance of the inspection visit
• A site visit at the practice.

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 for providing safe services.

At our previous inspection in 2021 we identified areas the provider should make improvements. Paper prescription security was not adequate and fire risks that had been identified by the provider were still in the process of being mitigated.

During this inspection we found that:

• Safety systems had been improved and processes were operated effectively to protect patients from risks associated with inappropriate use of paper prescriptions.
• Fire risks were identified, assessed and mitigated.

At our previous inspection in 2021 we identified areas the provider should make improvements. We told the provider to continue to progress action plans to ensure wherever possible, eligible patients receive cervical screening and to ensure patients with learning disabilities receive their annual health checks. As a result, the provider has taken the following action:

• The practice had continued to recall patients eligible for cervical screening and started text messaging patients who had not attended when initially invited. The practice had achieved 76% of screening for patients eligible who were 25 to 49 years old and 78% of patients between 50 and 64 years old in the previous 12 months up to 31 March 2022. This indicated an increase in uptake since the previous inspection.
• The practice had continued to recall patients with a learning disability for an annual health check. Data showed 42 out of 68 patients had received a health check up to 31 March 2022 and we saw evidence there were planned reviews and recalls for the remaining patients to receive health checks. This indicated the action plan had successfully increased uptake of the health checks planned in October 2021.
• In addition, we saw evidence the practice had continued to improve the recall and increase the reviews of patients with diabetes.

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