The Chief Inspector of General Practice has placed a GP practice in Brent, north London, into special measures. Urgent action was taken to suspend this service for three months after the Care Quality Commission inspection in February 2016.
Inspectors rated Kings Edge Medical Centre in Stag Lane, Kingsbury, as overall Inadequate. It was rated Inadequate for being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Inspectors found that patients were at risk of harm because systems and processes were not in place to keep them safe. There were also concerns relating to incident reporting, safeguarding and chaperoning.
- There were serious concerns relating infection control, vaccines and medicines management, recruitment, staffing and dealing with emergencies.
- Patient feedback was mostly negative and they said they were not always treated with dignity and compassion.
- The appointment system was not working well.
- The practice had no clear leadership structure.
QQC identified a number of areas where the practice must make improvements. These include developing a strategy to improve services for patients, ensuring recruitment arrangements include the necessary employment checks for all staff, and putting systems in place to ensure clinicians are kept up to date with national guidance and guidelines.
Ursula Gallagher, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice in CQC’s London region said: “It is important that the people who are registered at Kings Edge Medical Centre can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.
“We have now placed the practice into special measures – which means we will inspect again in six months’ time. This will enable the practice to access all the support it needs via NHS England, using the vulnerable practices scheme.”
Patients registered with practices being placed into special measures should be aware that the package of support being offered by NHS England and the Royal College of GPs will ensure that there are no immediate risks to patient safety at these GP practices whilst improvements are being made. These practices will not close.
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