CQC Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated The Stanmore Medical Centre, Middlesex as inadequate

A specialist team of inspectors rated the service provided by The Stanmore Medical Centre as inadequate being safe, and well-led, requires improvement for effective and good for being responsive and caring.

This means that the practice has been given an overall rating of inadequate.

Under CQC’s new programme of GP practice inspections, led by Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice, all of England’s GP practices are being inspected and given a rating.

The practice was inspected in February 2015 by an inspection team which included a CQC inspector, a CQC Inspection Manager and a GP specialist advisor. A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today.

Inspectors checked the stock of the practice’s emergency medicines. They found that the medicines had not been obtained directly from a medicine supplier. Instead, the surgery had obtained the medicines through using prescriptions written for patients. This represented a breach of the regulations for obtaining medicines.

The practice’s infection control procedures were inadequate. Inspectors noted that the nurses’ room on the ground floor was visibly unclean. A bowl was found under the consultation couch containing dirt and hair. The practice could not provide CQC with an infection control policy and there were no written procedures for cleaning the practice or to evidence how clinical areas were cleaned between patients.

Inspectors looked at the recruitment records of a cross section of staff. The records showed that recruitment checks had not been systematically carried out. For example, we checked the records of two members of staff and found no evidence of criminal checks via the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or references for one member of staff.

The Care Quality Commission has identified 12 specific areas for improvement meaning the practice must:

• Ensure the necessary pre-employment checks are completed on all staff.
• Ensure emergency medicines are obtained appropriately.
• Introduce effective systems to assess the risk of and to prevent, detect and control the spread of health care associated infections.
• Maintain appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene in relation to the premises.
• Introduce adequate systems and processes to manage and monitor risks to patients, staff and visitors to the practice in relation to health and safety.
• Ensure patients, staff and visitors are protected against the risks associated with unsafe or unsuitable premises by means of adequate maintenance of the premises and equipment.
• Ensure paper medical records are stored securely.
• Ensure systems are in place to provide reassurance. that all safety alerts are acted on and in a timely manner.
• Share learning from incidents with all staff where appropriate.
• Provide staff with accredited training in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
• Update the business continuity plan and ensure it is accessible to staff.
• Ensure audit cycles are completed to demonstrate improved outcomes for patients.

Ruth Rankine, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“The Stanmore Medical Centre operated in a way which failed to meet the fundamental aspects of good care and treatment that people have the right to expect from their GP - high quality, compassionate and safe. The staff working in the surgery treated people with kindness and compassion and it is important to acknowledge these fundamental aspects of good quality care. However, overall we rated the service as inadequate as we found that the provider was failing people in a number of key areas and exposed people to unacceptable risks.

“It is vital that The Stanmore Medical Centre takes action to address the concerns we identified at this inspection. The provider has a responsibility to ensure that people are safe and protected from the risk of harm. All people using the surgery services have a right to receive care which is of a high quality, compassionate and safe.

"The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary another inspection will be conducted within a further six months."

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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Manager, John Scott on 07789 875809. Alternatively, the CQC press office can be contacted on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07789 876508