The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the Sinha Medical Teaching Practice in Newham, East London as Inadequate following an inspection in May 2015.
During the inspection process, CQC found that the provider was failing to provide care which was safe, effective, caring, well-led and responsive to people’s needs. CQC has taken urgent action against the provider to protect the safety and welfare of local patients that has resulted in the de-registration of the previous provider. Caretaking arrangements have been put in place for local patients to access GP services at the same location, pending the appointment of new provider.
Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all primary medical services in England are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.
A full report from the inspection has been published today.
Inspectors found that the previous provider did not protect patients from significant risk of harm because systems and processes were not in place to keep them safe. In particular, infection prevention and control was not being managed and there was no system in place to manage medicines, resulting in out of date emergency medicines being made available to patients.
CQC found that the previous provider did not have a formal recruitment process, a clear leadership structure, formal governance or evidence of staff learning or development. Members of staff were unclear about how to report incidents, near misses or concerns and no safeguarding training had been provided.
No audit and performance was available to demonstrate that patients were receiving effective care and treatment. However, patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and felt involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
Ursula Gallagher, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in London, said:
"When we are faced with a provider that is failing to care for patients properly, our first instinct is to work with them to ensure that patient care improves, with the expectation that sufficient improvements will be made within a required timeframe.
“Where we have very serious and urgent concerns in the first instance, we can take swift action to protect local service users which can result in the de-registration of an existing provider and closure.
“All providers have a responsibility to ensure that their patients are safe and have access to care that meets their needs, and when we find that this is not the case, as inspectors did during their visit to the Sinha Medical Teaching Practice, we may often have to take enforcement action.”
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For further information please contact Yetunde Akintewe, CQC Regional Engagement Manager, on 07471 020 659. For media enquiries, call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.
Read our reports on Sinha Medical Teaching Practice