• Doctor
  • GP practice

Archived: Featherstone Road Surgery Also known as Bondcare Medical Services Ltd

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Hartington Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB2 5DQ (020) 3313 9880

Provided and run by:
Living Care Medical Services Limited

All Inspections

26 April 2017

During an inspection looking at part of the service

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice


We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 26 May 2016 at Featherstone Road Surgery. At that inspection the practice was rated requires improvement overall and requires improvement for providing a responsive service to patients and for being well-led. This was because patients reported difficulties accessing the service in a timely way and the practice had not responded to longstanding patient feedback to address the problems. We also identified some concerns about the practice’s performance in managing diabetes and patient uptake rates for national screening programmes. This resulted in the practice being rated requires improvement for the care provided to people with long term conditions. The practice was rated good for providing safe, effective and caring services. The full report of the 26 May 2016 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Featherstone Road Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We carried out a focused follow-up inspection on 26 April 2017. Following this inspection, we revised the practice’s ratings for providing responsive and well-led services and the rating for the care of people with long term conditions. All these aspects of the service were now rated as good. As a result, the overall rating for the practice is good.

Our key findings were as follows:

  • The practice had taken action to improve patient access. The number of appointments relative to the patient list size had increased from an average of 72 to 77 per thousand patients per week.
  • The practice had changed its appointment system and patients were now able to pre-book appointments up to four weeks in advance. More online appointments were available and the telephone system had been upgraded.
  • We noted improvements to the practice’s cervical screening uptake rate since our previous inspection. Practice performance was now in line with the national and clinical commissioning group averages.
  • The practice had also improved its management of longer term conditions as measured by the Quality and Outcomes Framework. We noted in particular, improvements to the practice’s approach to managing diabetes. The practice had introduced in-house diabetes clinics and screening checks to identify patients at high risk of developing diabetes.
  • The practice had increased the number of patients it had identified as carers. The practice now had 108 carers, (that is over 1% of the practice list) and provided them with appropriate support.
  • The practice had revived its patient participation group which was now meeting quarterly and was in the process of running a feedback survey to test whether the changes it had made had improved patient experience.

We saw one area of outstanding practice:

  • The practice had identified a particularly low uptake rate for cervical screening among its Somali patients. The practice had a relatively high number of patients who had recently arrived in the UK with limited English and very variable understanding of the risk of cancer and cancer screening. Written invitations and reminders were of limited value with this group. The practice nurse (who spoke three Somali languages) had visited women at the local mosque to explain the purpose of the screening test and the procedure. As a result, the practice had successfully persuaded a number of eligible women to attend the surgery for the test and had also encouraged women who were not registered with a GP to register themselves and their families. This approach had contributed to the practice's increase in cervical screening uptake rates which were in line with the local and national averages in 2016/17.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

26 May 2016

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Featherstone Road Surgery on 26 May 2016. Overall the practice is rated as requires improvement.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • There was an open and transparent approach to safety and an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events. The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.
  • Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
  • Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained and had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
  • Patients said they were treated with compassion and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
  • Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints.
  • The service was accessible to patients experiencing urgent problems the same day. However registered patients said they found it difficult to make an appointment and there was limited continuity of care. Several patients told us it was so difficult to get through to the surgery by telephone they had to queued outside the surgery before it opened to book an appointment. Staff confirmed that patient queues outside the surgery by 8am were common.
  • The practice had good facilities, provided a wide range of primary care services and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
  • There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice sought feedback from staff and patients and had responded positively to concerns and suggestions for improvement.

The areas where the practice must make improvements are:

  • The practice must take action to improve access to the service. Early morning queues outside the practice were a common occurrence. The practice recognised the problem but had not taken effective action.

Additionally, the practice should:

  • Introduce enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks for any staff members acting as chaperones.
  • Continue to engage patients with diabetes to improve the management and control of the condition and outcomes for patients.
  • Improve engagement and uptake rates among eligible women for cervical screening. 
  • Aim to increase the number of identified carers so that patients providing care are offered appropriate support.
  • Establish a patient participation group to expand the range and depth of patient feedback and engagement.
  • Review its internal signage and routeing. It was not always clear to patients which reception area they needed to use or where they should wait.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice

31 January 2014

During a routine inspection

During our inspection we spoke with four people using the service and four staff including the practice manager, two GP's and a practice nurse. People told us they were happy with the care and treatment they received. One person commented that they felt comfortable with their GP and said "I do not feel judged". Another said "Every doctor is careful when checking me and offering me treatment."

People were protected from the risk of abuse. Safeguarding procedures were in place for children and adults and staff were aware of them. They had also received adequate support and training to meet the needs of people using the service, including induction

training for new staff, training to deal with foreseeable emergencies and training specific to their role. Appraisals had been completed or initiated to assess staff performance and identify any development needs.

Effective systems were in place to monitor the quality of service provided including satisfaction surveys, audits and risk assessments. The results of surveys and audits had been analysed and action taken to make improvements to the service where necessary. A complaints procedure was available and a system was in place for investigating and learning from complaints.