A COVENTRY GP has been placed into special measures after being declared ‘inadequate’.
Wyken Medical Centre, in Brixham Drive, was found to be ‘inadequate for providing safe, effective, responsive and well led services’ following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Officers from the CQC inspected the surgery on February 24, 2015, and found that while staff at Wyken Medical Centre offered a caring service, systems to monitor the quality of the service and learn from incidents were not effective.
The practice, which serves roughly 2,100 patients, was only open until 1pm every day and did not provide late night, early morning appointments or have a website for patients to book appointments or order repeat prescriptions.
Inspectors also found the practice was not following procedures and guidance in a number of areas – including recruitment of staff, recording of accidents and serious incidents – including a prescription error – and was not acting in accordance with the most recent National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
The damning report concluded that while staff were providing a personalised, caring service – with 87 per cent of patients who completed a survey saying they had good experience of using the surgery – the overall level of care and treatment provided by staff suggested an ‘opportunistic rather than a planned approach to health promotion.’
Speaking about the report Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice and Dentistry in CQC’s Central region, Janet Williamson, said it is important that patients at Wyken Medical Centre can rely on getting the high quality care everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.
She added: “Although the patients said they were treated with dignity and respect and that staff were kind, we also found that care and treatment was not always delivered in line with best practice.
” We have found significant areas of concern, which is why we are placing the practice into special measures – so opening the way to support from NHS England among others.
“We know that the Wyken Medical Centre has acknowledged the areas where action must be taken.
“We will continue to monitor this practice and we will inspect again in six months to check whether improvements have been made.
“I am hopeful that the practice will do what is required for the sake of its patients, but if we find that the service remains inadequate, we will consider taking further action.”
The announced inspection was part of the CQC’s new programme of inspections, which will see all of England’s GP practices given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.
