Newton Heath GP Surgery rated inadequate and placed into special measures by CQC

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated a Newton Heath GP surgery as Inadequate and placed the practice into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A specialist team of inspectors rated Droylsden Road Family Practice, operated by Dr A Haq, and Dr S Kahn, in Newton Heath, Manchester as Inadequate for providing services that were safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well led.

Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being inspected and given a rating. Overall, Dr A Haq, and Dr S Kahn’s practice has been rated as Inadequate and placed in special measures. The service was also rated inadequate for the services provided to all population groups.

The practice was inspected in March 2016 by an inspection team which was led by a CQC inspector and included a CQC pharmacist inspector, a GP and practice manager as specialist advisors.

Some of the issues that inspectors noted, included:

• No clinical accountability or responsibility in the running of the practice.
• Inadequate systems in place to reduce harm to patients such as fire safety.
• Dirty and cluttered premises.
• No infection control practices.
• Staff were not clear about reporting significant events, incidents and near misses, and there was no evidence of staff communicating about these issues or being able to learn from them.

A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website at: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-552909275

Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:

“It is important that the people who are registered at Dr A Haq, and Dr S Kahn’s practice can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.

“Whilst some people spoke positively about the practice, we received comments that were a cause for concern particularly about access to appointments and patients having their concerns being taken seriously during consultation. Action must be taken to address the wider concerns we identified so that patients receive safe, high-quality primary care.

“I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without external support. This is why we are placing the practice into special measures.

“After a period of six months we will inspect again to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service provided by this practice remains inadequate, we will consider taking steps to cancel its registration with CQC.”

Patients registered with the 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.

Ends

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