England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has told a Manchester GP practice that it must improve. Brookdale Surgery will remain in special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in November 2017. The practice had been previously inspected on 11 April 2017 when it was rated as inadequate and placed into special measures.
In respect of CQC’s five key questions, inspectors rated the practice as inadequate in all categories; safety, well-led, caring, effectiveness and responsiveness.
A full report of the inspection can be found on our website.
The report highlights a number of areas of concern including:
The practice did not routinely review the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. Care and treatment was not always delivered according to evidence- based guidelines. Personalised treatment and care plans were not in place to meet patient’s individual needs.
Inspectors found that there was insufficient nurse cover to manage long-term conditions of patients safely and effectively. For example, long term conditions reviews and assessments of the care needs for patients were not being carried out systematically or collaboratively.
Alison Holbourn, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice for the North, said:
“I expect providers should use our inspection reports to help address their problems and rectify them as a matter of urgency. I am therefore disappointed to learn that following an inspection in April 2017 this service has deteriorated. I had hoped there would be an improvement."
“One of the ways medical professionals keep up to date with current and best practice is to read and share information. Inspectors found that patient safety alerts were not disseminated to clinical staff and there was no record that they had been actioned appropriately. This could seriously impact on patient safety. In addition there were insufficient day to day management structures or time in place to implement, embed and support the practices new internal governance changes required therefore, leaving both patients and staff at risk."
“We found shortfalls within the prescribing of medication which exposed some potentially worrying practice. Monthly checks on emergency medicines were performed by reception staff who had received no training. We found the recording and documentation was incorrect. For example, expiry dates had been incorrectly recorded. In one case the strength of medicine was incorrectly recorded and one medicine was not documented on the checklist sheet."
“It is important that the people who are registered with the Brookdale Surgery can rely on getting high quality care. CQC clearly has concerns and having failed an inspection in April and now in November and in line with our enforcement procedures CQC will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.”
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966.
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