South West London GP practice rated as Inadequate

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Dr Zaheer Hussain, of the Fulham Cross Medical Centre, in South West London, as Inadequate and has placed the provider into special measures following an inspection in November 2015.

Placement into special measures means that the provider must now make necessary improvements or face action that could result in closure.

Under CQC’s programme of inspections, GP practices in England are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

Dr Zaheer Hussain provides primary medical services to 2,200 patients within the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Inspectors found that the practice was failing to provide services that were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

The full report from the inspection has been published on the CQC website:

The practice had not maintained appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene. Inspectors observed that the premises were unclean and untidy. Walls and flooring throughout the practice were stained, cracked and visibly dirty.

Medicine management arrangements did not keep patients safe. Inspectors found several out-of-date flu, Shingles, HPV and MMR vaccines within the practice fridge.

There was no specific telephone answerphone message to direct patients to appropriate care services and advice when the practice is closed.

Staff were not clear about reporting significant events, incidents and near misses and there was no evidence of shared learning or communication with staff.

There was no available evidence to demonstrate that practice staff had received essential safeguarding, fire safety, basic life support and information governance training.

However, patients told inspectors that they had positive interactions with staff and that they were treated with compassion.

Ursula Gallagher, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice:

"When we are faced with a provider that is experiencing difficulties in providing adequate care for patients, our first instinct is to work with them to ensure that patient care improves.

“We took urgent enforcement action to suspend the practice for three months in November 2015, in order to give the provider the opportunity to address the immediate concerns we identified regarding patient safety.

“We are hopeful that the Dr Zaheer Hussain will continue to take any necessary action to address the concerns we identified during our most recent inspection.

“In particular, the provider must ensure that robust medicines management processes are introduced, appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene are maintained, and that all practice staff complete essential training, in order to reduce the risk of harm to patients.

“Clear information about alternative services and advice should also be provided for patients when the centre is closed.

“We will re-inspect within six months to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If sufficient improvements have not been made and there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take further action which may include closure.”

Ends

For further information please contact Yetunde Akintewe, CQC Regional Engagement Manager, on 07471 020 659. For media enquiries, journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.