CQC places St Johns Medical Centre in Grantham into Special Measures

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has placed a Lincolnshire GP practice into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

The Care Quality Commission has found the quality of care at St Johns Medical Centre in Grantham, Lincolnshire, to be Inadequate following an inspection carried out in September 2015. A full report of the inspection has been published today.

St Johns Medical Centre provides primary medical services to approximately 15,500 patients.

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 the practice was inadequate for providing safe, effective services that were well led. It was rated Good for providing caring and responsive services.

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

• The practice must implement effective systems for the management of risks to patients and others against inappropriate or unsafe care. This should include arrangements for recording, analysing and acting upon significant events, infection control, palliative care, staff training and review of pathology results.
• The practice must have a system in place to ensure that patients are safeguarded from abuse and improper treatment.
• Processes need to be embedded to ensure emergency equipment and vaccine refrigerators are checked as per the practice policy.
• Reviews must be carried out for patients with learning disabilities.
• The practice must have a robust system in place for vaccination programmes and the recall of patients with long term conditions.
• The practice must have a system in place for the summarising of patient notes and the backlog of paper records for new patients.

CQC is working closely with NHS South West Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (SWLCCG) to 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 St Johns Medical Centre can 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 kindness, dignity and respect, we also found that care and treatment was not always delivered in line with best practice. The practice did not have a clear or consistent system in place for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events, incidents and accidents.

“We know that St Johns 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 for the practice to receive 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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