England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has told a Gateshead GP that the practice must improve following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
A specialist team of inspectors found that Dr Syed Masroor Imam, Jackson Street, Gateshead was not providing services which were safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led. Overall, Dr Imam’s practice was rated as Inadequate.
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.
Dr Imam’s practice was inspected in January 2015. The inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector, together with a GP and an Expert by Experience. A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today.
Patients spoken with were mostly positive about their interactions with staff and said they were treated with compassion and dignity. The National GP Patient Survey results published in January 2015 were better for the nurses than the GPs at the practice.
The announced comprehensive inspection identified a number of areas for improvement, including:
- The arrangements for the recording and storage of blank prescription forms were not robust or secure. There was no rationale to support which emergency medicines were kept within the practice.
- Staff were not appropriately supported in relation to their responsibilities by receiving appropriate training and appraisal.
- The practice had no clear leadership structure, insufficient leadership capacity and very little or no formal governance arrangements. Incidents, near misses, complaints and concerns were not reviewed on a regular basis and any learning from them was not shared widely with staff.
- Staff were not aware of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and their duties fulfilling it. Nurses did not understand the key parts of the legislation and were unable to describe how they implemented it in their practice.
- They also demonstrated a lack of understanding of consent issues for children and young people.
CQC has been working closely with Newcastle Gateshead clinical commissioning group, and NHS England to support the practice while it addresses the issues identified by the inspection.
Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector – North Region, said:
“Patients should be able to expect high quality and consistent care from their GP practice. It is important that the people who are registered with Dr Syed Masroor Imam can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.
“While the majority of patients spoken with were mostly positive about their interactions with staff it is clear people are being exposed to potentially unsafe methods of care, for example processes were not in place around appropriate recruitment checks made on staff prior to employment to ensure that each new member of staff was fit and capable of undertaking the job they had been employed for.”
On the basis of the ratings given to this practice at this inspection, CQC is placing the provider into special measures. This will be for a period of six months. The Care Quality Commission will inspect the practice again in six months to consider whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the provider is still providing inadequate care we will take steps to cancel its registration with CQC.”
Ends
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Find out more
Read our reports on Dr Syed Masroor Imam.
While the majority of patients spoken with were mostly positive about their interactions with staff it is clear people are being exposed to potentially unsafe methods of care.
Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector, CQC North Region