England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated a Hastings 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 rated the service provided by Dr Ankur Chopra as Inadequate for providing services that were safe and well-led, and Requires Improvement for effectiveness while rated Good for being responsive to people’s needs and being caring.
Under CQC’s new programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being inspected and given a rating. Overall, Dr Ankur Chopra’s practice at Roebuck House, High Street, Hastings has been rated as Inadequate and placed in special measures.
The practice was inspected in October 2015 by an inspection team which included a GP as a specialist advisor and a pharmacist inspector.
A full report of this inspection has been published on the CQC website today.
While the Care Quality Commission found staff caring, treating patients with compassion and dignity, inspectors have identified a number of areas for improvement, including:
- Recruitment practices are robust and staff records contain the information required by regulation.
- Repeat prescriptions for medicines dispensed to patients and all Controlled Drug prescriptions are signed before they are dispensed.
- Staff have access to adequate emergency medicines when required
Ruth Rankine, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice (South) said:
“It is important that the people who are registered with Dr Ankur Chopra’s practice can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.
“While staff are caring and responsive to the needs of patients, there is still more the practice can do to improve to ensure that people get 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.”
A spokesperson for NHS England South said:
“General practice is the bedrock of the NHS and it’s pleasing that the majority of practices inspected are rated good, with some rated outstanding. These inspections are about ensuring that every patient, anywhere across the country, receives consistently high quality services by identifying issues so improvements can be made. For those practices rated as ‘inadequate’ there is a need for extra support to be put in place.
“Dr Ankur Chopra’s practice in Hastings has confirmed its commitment to making the necessary improvements set out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). NHS England is working alongside Hastings and Rother CCG to support the practice to take the action needed to make sure it has the right processes in place to support the delivery of safe, high quality care to all its patients.”
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 Manager John Scott on 07789875809. 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 about Dr Ankur Chopra.