County GP surgeries with lowest CQC rating
ONE HAS SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE BEING MADE
GP SURGERIES have been feeling immense pressure in the past couple of years, with the global coronavirus pandemic putting the NHS under strain. Many patients have found it difficult to make appointments or see their doctor face-toface.
The Care Quality Commission inspects GP surgeries, as well as care homes, hospitals, clinics, walk-in centres and community services, and rates them according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. They are given one of four ratings for each area – outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate – and an overall rating.
The CQC website shows 109 results for GP services within a 15-mile radius of Derby – 19 have received an “outstanding” rating and 76 were rated as “good”.
However, two have received a rating that states they “require improvement” and one is classed as “inadequate”.
THE VILLAGE SURGERY
The Hub, Alfreton
Overall Verdict: Inadequate Most recent inspection: April 4, 2022 Safe: Inadequate
Effective: Requires Improvement Caring: Good Responsive: Good
Well-led: Inadequate
What the report says: “This service was placed in special measures in January 2022. Insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for The Village Surgery. Therefore we are taking action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.
“They need to ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients and establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
“Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to vary the provider’s registration to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.”
A spokesperson for the surgery said: “The team has put in a significant amount of work over the past months to introduce more robust and effective processes, but we also recognise that challenges remain.
“We can assure patients that their safety is of paramount importance to us and that we will continue to build upon the improvements introduced since the previous inspection.
“More work is under way and we are clear on how we are aiming to meet the highest possible standards of care.”
BRAILSFORD & HULLAND WARD MEDICAL PRACTICE
The Green, Ashbourne, DE6 3BX Overall Verdict: Requires Improvement
Most recent inspection: November 1, 2 and 8, 2021
Safe: Requires improvement
Effective: Requires improvement Caring: Good Responsive: Good
Well-led: Good
What the report says: “Some clinical staff had not completed safeguarding training at a level appropriate to their role and alerts had not been added to the records of people living in the same household as a child with a safeguarding concern.
“Recruitment checks were not always carried out in accordance with regulations, particularly for locum staff, with some opportunities to carry out risk assessments being missed.
“Fire drills had not been completed on a six-monthly basis as detailed in the practice’s fire prevention policy, and equipment to monitor oxygen saturation levels in children was not available within the practice. Some sharps bins and cytotoxic clinical waste bins were undated, meaning staff were not aware of the required disposal date. There was no evidence that cleaning schedules were in place.
“Dispensary standard operating procedures were not always adhered to, and there was no system in place to ensure that hospital letters and test results were reviewed in a timely
manner when the deputy clinical lead was on leave. Medicine reviews for patients with diabetes were not always completed by an appropriately qualified clinician.
“The provider could not demonstrate that all Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alerts were incorporated into clinical practice.”
The surgery declined to comment on the CQC inspection report.
SDC (UK)1 LIMITED PRIME HEALTH & BEAUTY CLINIC
216-218 Burton Road, Derby, Derbyshire, DE23 6AA
Overall Verdict: Requires Improvement
Most recent inspection: October 8, 2021
Safe: Requires improvement Effective: Good
Caring: Good Responsive: Good
Well-led: Requires improvement
What the report says: “We carried out an unannounced focused inspection on October 8, 2021 at SDC (UK)1 Limited Prime Health & Beauty Clinic, Derby, to follow up on breaches of regulations.
“CQC previously inspected the service on August 6, 2021, and rated it as requiring improvement overall.
“The service did not have reliable systems for appropriate and safe handling of medicines and there were limited systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety.
“We asked the provider to make improvements regarding safe care and treatment, and good governance.
“At this inspection, we found improvements in safe care and treatment. However, we found breaches relating to good governance. This report only covers findings in relation to the specific areas that we looked at.”
SDC declined to comment.