The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • GP practice

Francis Road Medical Centre

Overall: Inadequate read more about inspection ratings

94 Francis Road, London, E10 6PP (020) 8539 3131

Provided and run by:
Dr Rameet Singh Uberoi

Important: The provider of this service changed - see old profile

All Inspections

13 June 2023 and 20 June 2023

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive follow-up inspection at Francis Road Medical Centre on 13 June 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as inadequate.

Safe - inadequate

Effective - requires improvement

Caring - requires improvement

Responsive - inadequate

Well-led - inadequate

Following our previous inspection on 21 September 2022, the practice was rated inadequate overall and for all key questions except requires improvement for providing caring services.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Francis Road Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection to follow up on breaches of regulation found at the previous inspection and information of concern received.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • A short site visit.
  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing and face to face.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
  • Staff feedback

We found that:

  • The systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse continued to be inadequate.
  • Appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were not met.
  • The systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety continued to be inadequate.
  • Staff did not always have the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment.
  • We continued to find the system in place to ensure learning took place and improvements were made continued to be inadequate and placed people at risk.
  • The practice was unable to demonstrate that all staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
  • Staff did not always treat patients with kindness, respect and compassion. Feedback from patients was mixed about the way staff treated people.
  • Services did not always meet patients’ needs.
  • People were not always able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • Leaders could not demonstrate that they had the capacity and skills to deliver high quality sustainable care.
  • The practice culture did not support high quality sustainable care.
  • There were inadequate governance arrangements.
  • There was little to no management of patient complaints and we had no assurance patient complaints were managed effectively.
  • The practice had improved in relation to ensuring patients needs were assessed and care and treatment was delivered in line with current legislation.

We found breaches of regulations. The provider must:

  • Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way.

  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within 6 months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within 6 months if they do not improve.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care

21 September 2022

During a routine inspection

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Francis Road Medical Centre on 21 September 2022. Overall the practice is rated as inadequate.

Safe - inadequate

Effective - inadequate

Caring - requires improvement

Responsive - inadequate

Well-led - inadequate

Following our previous inspection on 31 January 2017 and 22 February 2017, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Francis Road Medical Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out this inspection on 21 September 2022 to follow up concerns reported to us in line with our inspection priorities. Concerns received related to safety systems and processes and governance of the practice. In response to these concerns, we carried out an announced site visit inspection on 21 September 2022, in conjunction with a remote clinical records review.

This report covers our findings in relation to the inspection.

How we carried out the inspection

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This included:

  • Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
  • Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
  • Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
  • Requesting evidence from the provider.
  • A site visit.

Our findings

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

  • what we found when we inspected
  • information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
  • information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

We found that:

  • The practice did not have adequate systems, practices and processes to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
  • Appropriate standards of cleanliness and hygiene were not met.
  • The systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety were inadequate.
  • Staff did not always have the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment.
  • The practice did not have systems for the appropriate and safe use of medicines.
  • Staff did not always treat patients with kindness, respect and compassion.
  • The practice had not taken steps to improve in all the areas of lower than average performance identified in the national GP patient survey.
  • Complaints were not always used to improve the quality of care.
  • People were not always able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
  • The overall governance arrangements were inadequate.
  • The practice culture did not adequately support high quality sustainable care.
  • The practice had a programme of quality improvement activity and routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided. There was monitoring of the outcomes of care and treatment but improvement was required.

We found breaches of regulations. The provider must:

  • Ensure that care and treatment is provided in a safe way.
  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

In addition, the provider should:

  • Implement a system to improve the identification of carers and young carers in the practice.
  • Consider implementing a language translate option on the practice website.

I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any population group, key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration. Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.

Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services