CQC places Mapperley Park 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 Mapperley Park Medical Centre, Mapperley Park, Nottingham, to be Inadequate following an inspection carried out in March 2015. A full report of the inspection has been published today.

Mapperley Park Medical Centre provides primary medical services to approximately 2,320 patients in the Mapperley Park and St Ann’s area of Nottingham.

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 that while staff at Mapperley Park Medical Centre offered a caring and supportive service, there were unsuitable arrangements in place to ensure there were sufficient staffing levels and an appropriate skill mix to deliver services and support patients.

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

• Patients were at risk of harm because systems and processes were not sufficient or robust enough to keep them safe. For example, appropriate recruitment checks on staff had not been undertaken prior to their employment, and actions identified to address concerns with infection control practice had not been completed.
• Although staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns, safety was not sufficiently prioritised and there were inadequate systems in place to record, monitor and manage risks.
• There were unsuitable arrangements in place to ensure sufficient staffing levels and an appropriate skill mix were in order to deliver services and support patients.
• Staff had not received essential training appropriate to their roles and any further training needs had not been identified and planned.
• Same day appointments were usually available on the day they were requested. However patients said that they sometimes had to wait up to two weeks for non-urgent appointments.
• The practice had insufficient leadership capacity and very limited formal governance arrangements in place to identify and manage risks.

CQC is working closely with NHS England and Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group to support the practice.

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 Mapperley Park Medical Centre rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.

"Although the patients we met told us they were treated with dignity and respect, we also found that care and treatment was not always delivered in line with best practice.

“We know that Mapperley Park 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.”

Ends

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