England's Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated an Oldham GP Practice, Springfield House, as Inadequate and placed them into special measures following an inspection by the CQC in September.
Under CQC's programme of inspections, all of England's GP practices are given a rating in five key areas: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The practice was rated as Inadequate for safe, effective, and well-led domains, and rated as 'Requires Improvement' for caring and responsive. The services provided by the practice have been rated as Inadequate overall.
A previous inspection in March 2015 rated the practice as Requires Improvement.
Alison Holbourn, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice at CQC said:
"We found that people registered with Springfield House aren't getting the high quality care which everyone should expect to receive from their GP practice.
"At a previous inspection we rated them as Requires Improvement.
"It was worrying to see that training at the practice wasn't well monitored and there was no evidence of all staff completing the appropriate training to carry out their role.
"We found that the practice weren't responsive to the needs of the people using the service, for example we saw no extended opening times, or programmes for specific groups such as carers.
"I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without external support; placing the practice into special measures ensures that action will be taken to improve the quality of care for patients."
A full report of this inspection has been published on this website.
Some of the areas where CQC have told the practice they must improve are:
- Put systems in place to ensure staff are appropriately trained and that training remains current for their role.
- The provider must introduce effective monitoring and processes for reporting, recording and acting on significant events, investigating and responding to complaints and ensuring all medical equipment is within its expiry date.
- The provider must review chaperone procedures to avoid embarrassment to patients.
- The practice must ensure access to appointments is available for patients under the age of 16 who have the appropriate level of competence and wish to attend without a parent or guardian.
- Springfield House must ensure all employmentchecks are in placeat recruitment to ensure well qualified staff are employed
The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider's registration.
Patients registered with the practices being placed into special measures should be aware that a package of support is offered by NHS England and the Royal College of GPs to ensure that there are no immediate risks to patient safety at these GP practices whilst improvements are being made.
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