CQC places Ashfield Medical Centre into Special Measures

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has placed a Nottinghamshire GP practice into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care at Ashfield Medical Centre in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, to be Inadequate following an inspection carried out in March 2015. A full report of the inspection has been published today.

Ashfield Medical Centre provides primary medical care services to approximately 3,320 patients in Sutton-in-Ashfield in North Nottinghamshire.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

Inspectors found the practice had a vision to deliver high quality care and promote good outcomes for its patients. However, data reviewed and patient feedback showed some aspects of service delivery such as assessment of patients’ needs and access to the service did not promote good outcomes for patients.

The report highlights a number of areas where improvements must be made including:

• The practice must ensure recruitment arrangements include all necessary employment checks. Staff undertaking chaperone duties must have a satisfactory criminal records check in place or a risk assessment which clearly demonstrates why this is not necessary.
• Robust systems must be put in place to regularly assess, monitor and mitigate the identified risks and quality of services provided to patients. This includes having regard to complaints, comments and views of patient experiences in respect of poor telephone access, the appointment system and staffing levels.
• Audit cycles must be completed in order to demonstrate improvements made to patient outcomes.
• The practice must ensure the infection prevention and control processes are strengthened to assure the provider that all staff have up to date training and guidance.

The provider must send CQC a report that says what action they are going to take to meet these essential standards.CQC is working closely to support the practice while it addresses the issues identified by the inspection.

Janet Williamson, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice and Dentistry in CQC’s Central region said:

“It is important that the people who are registered with Ashfield Medical Centre can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.

“There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. However governance arrangements needed to be strengthened to ensure effective systems were in place to regularly assess and monitor the quality of services provided”

“We know that Ashfield Medical Centre has acknowledged the areas where action must be taken. We have found significant areas of concern, which is why we are placing the practice into special measures - so opening the way to support from NHS England among others.

“We will continue to monitor this practice and we will inspect again in six months to check whether improvements have been made. I am hopeful that the practice will do what is required for the sake of its patients, but if we find that the service remains inadequate, we will consider taking further action.”

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