The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has placed Old West Surgery in Old Road West, Gravesend, Kent into ‘special measures’, after an inspection they carried out in August.
The practice, which was previously rated ‘good’, has now been rated overall ‘inadequate’.
The CQC report says: ‘The practice failed to assess, monitor and mitigate risks to the health, safety and welfare of service users.’
Among the CQC findings, the practice had ‘failed to record, investigate and learn from significant incidents’ and ‘had insufficient arrangements in place to respond to emergencies and major incidents’.
The practice, which counted approximately 10,764 patients at the time of the CQC inspection and was owned and managed by only one GP receiving the support of locum GPs, had also vacant positions, the risks of whom had not been assessed.
Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice Ruth Rankine said: ‘As a result of this inspection we have placed Old West Surgery into special measures and have also issued two warning notices.
‘We will re-inspect the practice within six months to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service provided by this surgery remains inadequate, we will take further action.’
Old West Road Surgery told Management in Practice that they take the ‘safety and welfare of patients very seriously’ and have an action plan in place to address the issues raised in the CQC report.
Ricki Wittenbakersaid, practice manager, Old West Road Surgery, said: ‘Old Road West Surgery is disappointed at the decision by the Care Quality Commission to place the practice into special measures, following a practice inspection in August 2017.
‘The CQC inspection report highlighted areas where the surgery was delivering a good service, which reflects the commitment of all practice staff to high quality patient care, but also identifies areas that we need to improve.
‘We are committed to making all necessary improvements for all of our patients and the practice is confident that the outcome of any future CQC inspection will reflect this.’
