Another practice failed to meet the Care Quality Commission (CQC) requirements to provide safe and effective quality of care, according to a report published today (9 February).
Oldham GP practice in Oldham, Greater Manchester failed to convince the CQC inspectors on a number of areas. They rated the practice as inadequate for ‘safety’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘well led’ and requires improvement for ‘caring’ and ‘responsiveness’.
The inspectors, who visited the practice in December 2017, found that the practice did not have a system in place to learn from incidents.
The report said: ‘There was a system for recording and acting on significant events (SEAs) and incidents, but this was not effective.
‘Some incidents were not correctly recorded as an SEA. For example a sample labelling error meant that a child did not receive treatment for an eye infection. This was not recorded as an SEA, was not investigated, and learning points were not considered.’
The inspectors also found that no adequate systems to protect children and vulnerable adults were in place.
Despite this, patients said that they were treated with respect, compassion and dignity, according to the July 2017 annual national GP patient survey.
The practice provides care for 2,925 patients, and is run under GMS contracts by two GP partners.
The report also found that the practice had training issues, with the practice manager revealing that ‘they had found training difficult since the CCG stopped the training budget, and they now had to source and fund their training.’
The CCG has been approached for comments.
CQC head of general practice in the north Beverley Cole said: ‘The practice was not able to demonstrate that staff were appropriately trained. Not all staff had received training in safeguarding.
‘There were systems for safely managing healthcare waste. However, we found 24 out of date syringes stored with in-date syringes in a clinical room. One of these had an expiry date of October 2015. Having systems in place is clearly good practice, but ensuring they are adhered to is crucial to the success of the safe management of the practice.’
The practice has been approached for comments.
