Watchdog places sports clinic in special measures
INSPECTORS HIGHLIGHT FAILINGS AT CENTRE FOR TOP ATHLETES
A SPORTS clinic for elite athletes has been rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Inspectors found a number of failings at the English Institute of Sport, in Loughborough, and have placed it in special measures.
It said the centre, on the Loughborough University campus, must improve in time for a follow-up inspection in six months’ time, or face enforcement action.
The CQC found the centre had insufficient infection control measures in place, gaps in staff training and instances of expired medicines not being removed from stock.
It has been graded “inadequate” for its safety and leadership, “requires improvement” for its effectiveness and “good” for its level of care and responsiveness, said the CQC.
The centre, which comes under the umbrella of the English Institute of Sport, treats both adult and child athletes.
It has a team of four sports and exercise doctors, seven physiotherapists, a nutritionist, strength and conditioning coaches, an operations lead and a team offering administration support, with all doctors listed on the specialist register of sport and exercise medicine.
Inspectors noted staff treated athletes with “kindness, respect and compassion” and there was an understanding of athletes’ personal, cultural, social and religious needs.
The culture at the centre was also commended, with employees stating they felt respected, supported and valued.
However, the CQC report highlights a lack of procedures in place to report and review significant incidents. Staff had not received up-todate safeguarding training.
The report adds: “Emergency medicines were not managed effectively. Some medicines were found to have expired and had not been removed from stock. There was no process in place for infection control and the staff had not received infection control training.
“At the time of our inspection, the provider was changing their training platform and they expected all staff to have completed their mandatory training by September 2022.
“There were some medicines and equipment to deal with medical emergencies which were stored appropriately and checked regularly.
“We saw adrenaline available. However, some stocks of the autoinjector pens were out of date and had not been removed from the emergency kit, despite there being other adrenaline available.
“We were told this was because some staff did not know how to administer adrenaline not stored in an auto-injector. The out-of-date medicines were not labelled as not fit for use and there was a risk these could be used in an emergency.
“Following the inspection, we were told that the out-of-date medicines were removed from the emergency medical bag and advice had been given to staff.”
Dr Rosie Benneyworth, the CQC’s chief inspector of primary medical services and integrated care, said the centre would be kept under review.
She said: “I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months.
“If insufficient improvements have been made, such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.
“This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.
“The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action.
“Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted in 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.
“Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.”