A practice has said it is ‘shocked’ by a CQC decision to close one of its surgeries with immediate effect following an ‘additional unannounced inspection on Eid’.
The closure of Strelley Surgery, which serves 4,600 patients in Nottingham, occurred after an inspection on ‘one of the holiest days in Islam,’ according to the practice, which said this had an impact on staff availability.
In a statement provided by Beechdale Medical Group, which runs the practice and three other surgeries in Nottingham, its senior partner Dr Marcus Bicknell claimed two of Strelley Surgery’s staff were affected by the additional inspection on Eid and as a result, were ‘unable to completely answer some questions’.
The CQC said it was taking action to ‘protect the welfare and safety of patients’.
Beechdale Medical Group’s statement said: ‘We are disappointed that the CQC chose to hold an additional unannounced inspection on Eid, one of the holiest days in Islam; two of our senior staff were affected by this. Indeed, one was unable to attend and therefore we were unable to completely answer some questions that came under that manager’s remit. Cultural sensitivity, equality and diversity are of great importance to us and to the NHS.
‘In our opinion, the CQC has created more risk in immediately closing Strelley Surgery down than working with us to improve services and potentially organise a planned closure or change of service provider.’
The statement also added: ‘We are shocked and surprised that the Care Quality Commission has taken the decision to close the surgery with immediate effect.’
Dr Bicknell acknowledged concerns raised by the CQC during previous inspections and said the practice had since taken steps to address the problems.
He said: ‘The CQC were unhappy with our triage service and clinical availability at Strelley. We agreed to stop the triage service as the CQC were considering whether or not we could remain open. However there are insufficient clinical rooms at Strelley Health Centre to provide enough GP appointments to reassure the CQC that our service would be safe and as such they determined that we should close.’
Dr Bicknell added: ‘We have been working tirelessly over the past three years to provide better health and social care facilities at Strelley Health Centre, which we have regarded from the outset as not being fit for purpose. Significant funding has been identified. Senior councillors and politicians have supported us in these endeavours.
‘We hope that the NHS will find a way to ensure that the citizens of Strelley are provided with health care facilities of a high standard that will serve them well in the future.’
A CQC spokesperson said: ‘CQC carried out inspections at Strelley Health Centre, Nottingham, on 14 and 20 May 2019 and returned on 5 June as a result of a number of concerns.
‘We are taking action to protect the welfare and safety of patients. While our legal processes do not allow us to go into further detail at this time, we will publish a report in due course. In the meantime we continue to work closely with the CCG. All CQC’s action is open to appeal.’
This month, an independent review commissioned by the GMC said the CQC should scrutinise the working environments of doctors being investigated for gross negligence manslaughter or culpable homicide.
This article was first published by our sister publication Pulse.
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