The New Surgery

Updated 12 January 2023

The New Surgery is located at 128 Canterbury Road, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 5SR.

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, surgical procedures and family planning.

The practice is situated within the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System (ICS) and delivers General Medical Services (GMS) to a patient population of about 10,559. This is part of a contract held with NHS England.

The practice is part of a wider network of GP practices: Total Healthcare Excellence (THE) West Primary Care Network (PCN).

Information published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that deprivation within the practice population group is in the third lowest decile (three 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 95.2% White, 2.9% Asian, 1.2% Mixed, 0.5% Black and 0.3% Other.

The age distribution of the practice population closely mirrors the local and national averages.

There is a team of three GP partners and one salaried GP. The practice has a team of one advanced nurse practitioner and three practice nurses who provide nurse led clinics for long-term conditions. The GPs are supported at the practice by a team of reception and administration staff. The practice manager and deputy practice manager provide managerial oversight.

The practice is open between 8.30am to 6.30pm 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 the PCN, where late evening and weekend appointments are available. Out of hours services are provided by NHS 111. NHS 111 deals with urgent problems when GP surgeries are closed.

Updated 12 January 2023

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The New Surgery on 10 November 2022. Overall, the practice is rated as good.

Safe - requires improvement

Effective - good

Caring – good

Responsive – good

Well-led - good

Following our previous inspection on 10 May 2016 the practice was rated good overall and for providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services, but requires improvement for providing safe services. At a follow up inspection on 3 November 2016 the practice was rated good overall and for providing safe services.

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

Why we carried out this inspection

This inspection was a comprehensive inspection to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
• 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.

We found that:

• The practice learned and made improvements when things went wrong.
• Staff helped patients to live healthier lives.
• Staff treated patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• Complaints were listened and responded to and used to improve the quality of care.

We have rated this practice as Requires Improvement for providing safe services because:

• Infection prevention and control audits were not fully completed.
• There was a lack of action plans in relation to issues identified by infection prevention and control audits.
• Improvements were needed to the practice’s systems for the appropriate and safe use of medicines, including medicines optimisation.
• Safety alerts were not always managed in line with best practice guidance.
• Some patients with long term conditions did not always receive the required monitoring and reviews in line with best practice guidance.

We found one breach of regulation. The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way for patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to improve cervical cancer screening uptake.
• Continue to improve child immunisation uptake for children aged 1.
• Monitor staff immunisations in line with current guidelines.

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 Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services