We carried out an announced inspection at Woodlands Surgery on 22 September 2021 Overall, the practice is rated as Requires Improvement.
The key questions are rated as
Safe - Requires Improvement
Effective – Requires Improvement
Caring - Good
Responsive - Good
Well-led - Requires Improvement
Following our previous inspection in February 2019 the practice was rated Requires Improvement overall and for the safe, effective and well led key questions. Caring and responsive were rated as good.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Woodlands Surgery on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
The practice had been previously rated as Requires Improvement in February 2019. This inspection was to follow up breaches of regulation 12, 17, 18, and 19 as identified in our previous inspection.
How we carried out the inspection
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. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.
This included:
- Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider
- 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 requires improvement overall and requires improvement for all population groups.
We rated safe as Requires Improvement due to the insufficient improvements made from the previous inspection.
We rated the practice Requires Improvement for providing safe care because:
We found the practice had responded to some of the issues raised at the previous inspection. For example, managing patients on high risk medicines, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks undertaken for all staff, monitoring and recording the registration status of clinical staff, tracking prescription forms and pads throughout the practice. However, we found repeated breaches at this inspection. For example, there was insufficient monitoring of a small number of patients who were prescribed specific medicines, the practice was failing to follow up a small number of abnormal test results and there was a lack of monitoring of staff immunisations. We found infection control concerns that were not picked up in the infection control audit. The results from the fire risk audit, and electrical installation condition report were not always actioned in a timely manner.
We rated the practice Requires Improvement for providing an effective service because:
The practice had made some improvements in staff training. However, there were still gaps in training, including safeguarding and fire safety.
These areas affected all population groups, so we rated all population groups as requires improvement.
We rated the practice Requires Improvement for providing a well-led service because:
Although we found the provider had made some improvements, there were still breaches of regulation found. Some governance systems remained ineffective and leaders had insufficient oversight in order to identify when processes were not working as intended. The leaders in the service were unaware that some of the repeated risks identified at the last CQC inspection had not been resolved adequately.
We rated the practice Good for providing caring and responsive services because:
Patients received care and treatment that met their needs. Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care. The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The areas where the provider must make improvements are:
- Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way.
- Ensure persons employed in the provision of the regulated activity receive the appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal necessary to enable them to carry out their duties.
- Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
- Review how gaps in employment are recorded
- Review the frequency of clinical supervision
- Review equipment cleaning logs to specify equipment and the frequency of recording when equipment is cleaned
- Review and continue to monitor cervical screening to meet the Public Health England screening rate target.
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