The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Primary Care Centre in West Bromwich, inadequate, and placed it in special measures following an inspection in August.
Primary Care Centre, also known as Dr Haque's Practice, and run by Dr. N U Haque & Partners, delivers general medical services to around 3,100 people in West Bromwich.
The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s continual checks on the safety and quality of healthcare services. This was the first inspection CQC has undertaken since the practice has been under a new provider.
Following the inspection, the overall rating for the practice, as well as the areas of safe, effective, caring, and well-led is inadequate. Responsive is rated requires improvement.
The service has been placed in special measures which means it will be kept under close review to make sure people are safe and, if CQC do not propose to cancel the provider's registration, there will be a re-inspection to check for significant improvements.
Andy Brand, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said:
“When we inspected Primary Care Centre, we found a GP practice that wasn’t performing to the required standards to ensure local people were getting the service and treatment they deserve.
“We identified widespread shortfalls across the service including the assessment of risk, management of medicines, safeguarding, and governance.
“It was concerning that people on high risk medicines or those with long term conditions weren’t monitored or reviewed regularly which placed them at risk of harm. We saw alerts on people’s records to inform the clinical team that a review was required, however these hadn’t been actioned.
“The practice had an ineffective communication system meaning the outcome of any incidents hadn’t been shared with the practice team to mitigate future risk and learn from any errors.
“In addition, all providers must handle complaints efficiently and investigate them properly. On reviewing the complaints received we found complainants had not been treated with respect and courtesy which is unacceptable.
“We will continue to monitor the service closely to ensure significant improvements are made. If we are not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take further enforcement action to ensure people are receiving the high standard of care they deserve.”
Inspectors found:
- The practice was unable to demonstrate effective supervision of staff carrying out their roles to ensure they were acting within their competencies
- Safeguarding registers weren’t accurate meaning there was no way for staff to assure themselves they had clinical oversight of where the risks were
- Personnel records showed staff immunisation status was not recorded and no risk assessments had been completed
- The practice was unable to demonstrate it complied with the relevant safety alerts issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
- Clinical coding was not being monitored to ensure people’s records were accurate and provided the appropriate information to staff.
However:
- Appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were met
- Partners and staff were trained to appropriate levels for their role
- Receptionists were aware of actions to take if they encountered a deteriorating person at the practice, and had been given guidance on identifying this.