Leicester Mercury

Child given wrong dose of antibiotic­s at surgery

MEDICAL CENTRE TAKEN OUT OF SPECIAL MEASURES BUT STILL ‘REQUIRES IMPROVEMEN­T’

- By AMY ORTON Local Democracy Reporter amy.orton@reachplc.com @amy__orton

INSPECTORS found an out-of-date vaccine and records suggesting a child was being prescribed the wrong dose of antibiotic­s at a city GP surgery.

Evington Medical Centre, run by Hina G Trivedi and Partners, was rated inadequate in January by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors and ordered to make changes to the way it works.

It was placed in special measures after a number of issues were identified during the visit, including a delay referring a patient for cancer treatment and high-risk medication being wrongly added to a patient’s prescripti­on.

Officials went back in October and found that improvemen­ts had been made. As a result, the surgery was taken out of special measures.

But inspectors told bosses it still needed to make changes and gave it an overall rating of requires improvemen­t.

The practice, which has surgeries in Halesbury Street and Loughborou­gh Road, provides primary medical services to about 8,700 patients.

Other issues found during the latest inspection included two patients who had undergone a spleen removal not receiving appropriat­e medication or vaccinatio­ns.

Two patients out of five on the surgery’s books who were on blood pressure medication should have been under hospital management.

Inspectors pointed out the error to staff, who said they would deal with it immediatel­y.

Some patients with gestationa­l diabetes had not had their bloods checked within the appropriat­e timescales.

Action was taken immediatel­y to

We intend to build on this progress so that our CQC ratings continue to improve

Evington Medical Centre

deal with the outof-date vaccine and the wrong dose of antibiotic­s, which was too low. The inspectors noted that the service had acquired several new members of staff since the January

visit.

The CQC team said: “The practice demonstrat­ed that the staff team, who were generally newly employed, had completed learning in their induction period.

“Staff we spoke with were knowledgea­ble. Most had been recently employed but had had regular reviews, and we saw that dates were set for appraisals.”

A spokesman for Evington Medical Centre said: “We always aim to provide our patients with the best possible service and we are really pleased that we have been rated as good in two areas – providing caring and responsive services – and that the CQC has acknowledg­ed the positive feedback we have received from our patients.

“We are working hard to make further improvemen­ts and this CQC report recognises the recent changes we have put in place. Since the previous inspection, we have extended our surgery times by two hours each morning so that we can offer more appointmen­ts and we have made it easier for patients to get through on the phone.

“We have also increased the number of patients who use our online services, including booking their appointmen­ts online, and we have taken steps to get more patients coming in for cervical screening, which can spot signs of cancer at an early stage when it is easier to treat.

“We intend to build on this progress so our CQC ratings continue to improve.”

 ?? CHRIS GORDON ?? CRITICISED: Evington Medical Centre, in Leicester
CHRIS GORDON CRITICISED: Evington Medical Centre, in Leicester

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