England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has told Oldham Medical Services that it must improve, after rating it as Inadequate following an inspection in February.
Inspectors have rated the practice as inadequate for safety and well-led and requires improvement for caring, responsiveness and effectiveness. This gives the service its overall rating of Inadequate.
A full report of the inspection can be found on our website.
Beverley Cole, Head of General Practice for the North, said:
“It was worrying that since the last inspection in March 2015, the rating for The Oldham Medical Practice had fallen from Good to Inadequate. It is likely that this can partly be attributed to the Practice Manager leaving in November.
“There was a worrying trend of complaints not all being fully investigated and response letters lacking detail. It is important that is done properly so that any complaint received is investigated and any proportionate action is taken in response to any failure identified by the complaint or investigation.
“The inspection team found there was no effective system to manage infection prevention and control. The practice told us an infection control audit had been carried out the week prior to our inspection. This was supplied but it was not dated and it had not been fully completed so it was not possible to determine a score or if there were any issues.
“The practice did not have a good safety record. Risk assessments in relation to safety issues were not adequate. These included the fire risk assessment.
"Medicine checks were not effective as we found out of date vaccines and medicines that were not stored securely.
“It is important that the people who are registered with The Oldham Practice can rely on getting high quality care. The service has been placed in special measures and will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service.”
Some of the findings from the report include:
- Inspectors found that the practice did not have systems in place to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, there was no evidence the practice learned from them
- Medicines were not stored securely
- There was no focus on continuous learning and improvement at any level of the organisation
- The practice was not correctly registered by the CQC. The registered manager had left and CQC had received no application to register a new one
Ends
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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The practice did not have a good safety record
Beverley Cole, Head of General Practice for the North