Archived: Baycliffe Family Health Centre

We found there were no systems in place to effectively monitor patients with long term health conditions such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mental health and this left patients at risk of not receiving appropriate treatment and ongoing support.

We found the service did not have systems in place to ensure patients who required input and support from other health and social care services received coordinated care to meet their individual needs.

The service had no systems in place to monitor the medication and equipment supplies that resulted in a significant amount of out of date medication and equipment being stored for use at the practice. This presented a risk to patient safety.

The staff recruitment policy was not being followed and staff records viewed confirmed this. Appropriate checks such as references and professional registration checks were not being made prior to staff being employed at the service.

There were no systems in place to monitor the safety and quality of the service provided at Baycliffe Family Health Centre. There were no systems in place to seek the views of patients who used the service to determine if the service provided met their needs and expectations. Discussions with patients provided the following comments:

'I don't really feel engaged in my care. I just get told what to do.'

'It would be good to get a choice of doctor and a lady doctor. There are too many locums.'

'It would be good to have more people on site like health visitors and a lady doctor.'

'We could do with more services on site. You have to go somewhere else for blood tests.'

Patient records were not being stored securely and this meant they were at risk of being stolen or accessed by people without the legal right to do so.