CQC rates Croydon GP practice as Inadequate

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated a Croydon GP practice as Inadequate following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

A specialist team of inspectors rated the service provided by Woodside Group Practice in South Norwood as Inadequate for being safe, effective, responsive and well-led, but Good for being caring. 

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.

Woodside Group Practice was inspected in October 2014 by an inspection team led by a CQC Lead Inspector, with a GP advisor, and a practice manager.  A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today.

Inspectors found that the practice had an active Patient Participation Group and worked with them to identify their concerns.  Information was available for patients who were treated
with kindness and respect and felt involved in their care decisions.

But the practice had merged with another in April 2014.  Staff felt that the merger had not been well managed and they had few opportunities to contribute. Staff morale was low and they told inspectors that they felt undervalued.

Inspectors heard that patients were finding it extremely difficult in accessing the practice over the phone. Appointment systems were not working well and patients had to wait for more than two weeks in some cases to access routine appointments.

The Care Quality Commission has identified five areas for improvement, including:

• The practice must ensure that significant events are recorded appropriately and discussed regularly, ensuring that learning from incidents is identified and shared with all practice staff.
• The complaints procedure must be reviewed, and regular reviews of complaints must takes place, with learning identified and issues addressed.
• There must be regular medication reviews of people requiring repeat prescriptions.
• The appointments system must be monitored and reviewed.
• All paper based patient records must be stored securely.

CQC will be working closely with Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England to support the practice while it addresses the issues identified by the inspection.

Sarah Seaholme, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“It is important that the people who are registered with Woodside Group Practice 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 dignity and respect, we also found that care and treatment was not always delivered in line with best practice. There was little monitoring of the service being provided, or regular medication reviews and not enough learning from audits.

“We know that Woodside Group Practice has acknowledged the areas where action must be taken. We will return to check its progress. If in the coming months we don’t see sufficient improvement e may have to consider a package of further measures to ensure that this practice delivers the care and treatment to a standard that we all expect."

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