This practice is rated as requires improvement overall. (Previous rating October 2014 – Good)The key questions are rated as:
Are services safe? – Requires Improvement
Are services effective? – Requires Improvement
Are services caring? – Good
Are services responsive? – Good
Are services well-led? – Inadequate
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Austen Road Surgery on 14 June 2018. The inspection was part of our planned inspection programme.
At this inspection we found:
• The practice did not have reliable systems in place to ensure prescriptions (pads and computer prescription paper) were kept securely and monitored.
• The assessment of risk at the practice had not been adequately managed and not everything that was reasonably practicable to mitigate risk had been undertaken. Areas including fire safety, legionella, electrical installation and health and safety were not adequate.The practice did not have adequate processes in place to learn from incidents and make improvements when things went wrong.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• There was an active patient participation group in place who told us that they had seen improvements within the practice.
• Staff were positive about working in the practice and felt valued and supported in their roles.
• Patient survey results were positive and higher than average in several areas.
The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:
•Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
•Ensure staff employed in the provision of regulated activities receive the appropriate training and professional development necessary to enable them to carry out their duties.
•Ensure that there are effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
The areas where the provider should make improvements are:
•Take action to review their complaints procedure so that the information within the final response contains signposting information should the complainant remain dissatisfied and thus complies with the NHS complaints procedure.
•Take action to provide awareness training for all staff on the ‘red flag’ sepsis symptoms that might be reported by patients and how to respond appropriately.
Where a service is rated as inadequate for one of the five key questions or one of the six population groups, it will be re-inspected no longer than six months after the report is published. If, after re-inspection, the service has failed to make sufficient improvement, and is still rated as inadequate for any key question or population group or overall, we will place the service into special measures. Being placed into special measures represents a decision by CQC that a service has to improve within six months to avoid CQC taking steps to cancel the provider’s registration.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice