CQC rates Grimsby GP Practice as Inadequate

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has told a Grimsby GP that the practice must improve following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

A specialist team of inspectors found that the Ashwood Surgery Limited, Grimsby was not providing services which were safe, effective, caring, responsive or well led. Overall, the Ashwood Surgery 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.

The Ashwood surgery was inspected in January 2015 and twice in March 2015. The inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector. The team included GPs, a practice manager and a CQC inspection manager

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

During the inspection inspectors spoke with a range of administration and clinical staff, including the GP, practice manager and two different locum GPs who were working at the practice in January and March 2015.

CQC also spoke with patients who used the service and additionally were able to speak with four members of the patient participation group (PPG) following the inspection. CQC comment cards - where patients shared their views and experiences about the service - were also reviewed.

The inspections identified a number of areas for improvement, including the need for:

• Systems to be in place for clinicians to be kept up to date with national guidance and guidelines.
• The practice to monitor and review significant events.
• Systems to be in place to review the effectiveness of learning from incidents
• Systems for assessing and monitoring risks and the quality of the service provision.
• Audits of practice to be undertaken, including completed clinical audit cycles.
• Formal governance arrangements to improve patient care, with all staff to be aware of the importance of governance to improve patient care.
• A sufficient number of clinical staff to be employed to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of patients.

CQC has been working closely with North East Lincolnshire clinical commissioning group, and NHS England to support the practice while it addresses the issues identified by the inspection.

Sue McMillan s CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector in the North 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 the Ashwood Surgery Limited can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.

“I have particular concerns in relation to access to appointments, lack of continuity of care, poor support of locum GPs and that often there was not a GP available to patients. We were told that there were instances when the lead GP was only available in the practice for a short period each day. This is not acceptable.”

“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.”

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