England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has placed a Leicestershire GP practice into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care at Long Street Surgery – Two Steeples Medical Centre in Wigston, Leicestershire, to be Inadequate following an inspection carried out in April 2015.
A full report of the inspection has been published today.
Long Street Surgery – Two Steeples Medical Centre delivers primary medical services under a personal medical services (PMS) contract between themselves and NHS England. The practice serves a patient population of 2904. There are roughly equal numbers of patients aged over 65, under 18 and of working age.
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 inadequate for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive services and being well led. It was also inadequate for providing
services for older people, families, children and young people, working age people, people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health.
The report highlights a number of areas where improvements must be made including:
- Ensure contracts of employment be brought up to date with correct employment role shown. Show evidence that recruitment arrangements include all necessary employment checks for all staff.
- Ensure the health care assistant completes refresher courses for mandatory training.
- Ensure that formal multi-disciplinary meetings take place at regular intervals.
- Ensure blank prescription forms are stored securely and records of issue recorded correctly. The pads must also show the current address of the practice.
- Ensure staff receive full training on the cold chain and the recording of fridge temperatures. Vaccine effectiveness can not be guaranteed unless the vaccine has been stored correctly and therefore is a safety issue.
- Take action to address identified concerns with infection prevention and control practice as highlighted in recent audit.
- Ensure all policies and procedures within the practice are up to date.
- Ensure all examination tables are in good order without rips or tears and that phlebotomy needles, sutures, scalpels and scissors are in date and that all of the treatment room curtains are changed in line with their expiry dates.
- Ensure there are formal governance arrangements in place including systems for assessing and monitoring risks and the quality of the service provision.
- Ensure staff have appropriate policies and guidance to carry out their roles in a safe and effective manner which are reflective of the requirements of the practice.
- Clarify the leadership structure and ensure there is leadership capacity to deliver all improvements
CQC will inspect the practice again to consider whether sufficient improvements have been made and 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 Long Street Surgery – Two Steeples Medical Centre can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.
“The practice did not have a culture of transparency and openness and not all staff were clear about their roles and responsibilities.”
“We know that Long Street Surgery – Two Steeples Medical Centre are aware of 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 other bodies.
“We will continue to monitor this practice and we will inspect again within six months to check whether sufficient 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 take further action.”
Ends
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Find out more
Read our reports on Long Street Surgery – Two Steeples Medical Centre.