CQC rate St Mary’s Island Surgery, Chatham as Inadequate

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

A specialist team of inspectors has given Dr Stephen Lawrence (also known as St Mary’s Island Surgery) in Chatham, Kent an overall rating of Inadequate and the practice has been placed into special measures.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, led by Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice, all of England’s GP practices are being inspected and given a rating.

St Mary’s Island Surgery was inspected in December by a CQC team which included a CQC lead inspector, a GP specialist adviser and a Practice manager specialist adviser.

A full report of this inspection has been published on this website today.

Janet Williamson, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“The way in which the service was provided by Dr Stephen Lawrence (St Mary’s Island Surgery) failed to meet the fundamental aspects of good health care that people have the right to expect. There are significant issues to be resolved, but with the right support through the special measures regime, I believe the practice can improve.

"We will re-inspect the practice within six months to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service provided by this practice remains inadequate, we will consider further enforcement action."

The Care Quality Commission has identified areas for improvement, which include revising:

• Recruitment processes to ensure appropriate checks are undertaken prior to the employment of all staff.
• Medicines management procedures to help ensure Department of Health guidance is followed when managing the storage of vaccines.
• Risk assessment and management activities to include all risks to patients, staff and visitors.

Ends

For media enquiries, contact John Scott, Regional Engagement Manager, on 077898 75809 or contact CQC’s press office on 020 7448 9401, during office hours, or, out of hours, on 0778 987 6508. For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.