Ferryhill & Chilton Medical Practice

Updated 22 July 2024

19 August 2024 to 23 August 20247. Ferryhill & Chilton Medical Practice is an NHS GP Practice located in County Durham in an area with high levels of deprivation. There were approximately 14,800 patients registered with the service at the time of our assessment. We conducted this assessment due to information of concern. We assessed all 7 quality statements in one key question, is the service responsive. We have combined these scores with scores from previous inspections. At this assessment we found staff treated people equally and without discrimination. The provider complied with legal equality and human rights requirements. Leaders acknowledged patients had experienced difficulties in accessing the service since the pandemic. Improvements had been implemented, including implementing a new phone system, but the practice had not yet been able to gather evidence to demonstrate this had improved the experience for patients.

Updated 22 July 2024

Generally patient feedback about ease of access to the practice and its services were negative and was much lower than other practices. This included results from the National GP Patient Survey on access and feedback gathered by the practice, CQC and the local Healthwatch. The NHS Friends and Family test for May, June and July 2024 showed that on average 68% of patients rated the practice as very good or good over the 3 months. We spoke with 6 members of patient participation group. They told us although meetings had taken place, there had been a drop off in attendance over the last few meetings. They said the practice worked with them to gather their feedback; however, it wasn’t always clear what actions had been taken to address concerns. Members told us they appreciated there was a good representation from practice staff to these meetings.