England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated a Wigan GP surgery as Inadequate and placed the practice into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
A specialist team of inspectors visited Direct Access Surgery, operated by Dr Daya Nand Das, Leigh, Lancashire and was rated Inadequate for providing services that were safe, effective and well led, and Requires Improvement for being caring and providing services that are responsive to people’s needs.
Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being inspected and given a rating. Overall, Direct Access Surgery has been rated as Inadequate and placed in special measures. The service was also rated inadequate for the services provided to all population groups.
The practice was inspected in February 2016 by an inspection team which was led by a CQC inspector and included a GP a specialist advisor.
Inspectors found that the practice was not effectively investigating incidents of safety when they arose, and therefore could not learn from the event and cascade the information to staff in order to avoid reoccurrence or mitigate further risks to patient safety. The practice did not operate robust policies and procedures involving recruitment of staff, infection prevention and control, and fire health and safety – which risked placing patients at risk of avoidable harm. Whilst patients commented that they were treated with dignity and respect inspectors noted that audits into improving patient outcomes were inadequate and did not lead to improving the service. The practice did not fully understand their performance and lacked a vision and clear strategy for care at the service, and did not have effective systems to monitor the quality of the service it provided.
A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today.
Sue McMillan, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice said:
“It is important that the people who are registered at the Dr Daya Nand Das’ practice can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.
“Whilst some people spoke positively about the practice, we found significant concerns in the provision of care. Action must be taken to address the wider issues we identified so that patients receive safe, high-quality primary care.
“I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without external support. This is why we are placing the practice into special measures.
“After a period of six months we will inspect again to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service provided by this practice remains inadequate, we will consider taking steps to cancel its registration with CQC.”
Patients registered with the practices being placed into special measures should be aware that the package of support being offered by NHS England and the Royal College of GPs will ensure that there are no immediate risks to patient safety at these GP practices whilst improvements are being made.
Ends
For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519 or 07881656012.
Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here.
Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.
Find out more
Read our reports on Direct Access Surgery.