Sheffield GP surgery rated inadequate and placed into special measures by the CQC

Published: 9 February 2017 Page last updated: 12 May 2022

England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated The Matthews Practice Belgrave, Sheffield as Inadequate and placed the practice into special measures following an inspection by the CQC in November 2016.

Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are given a rating in five key areas: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

The practice was rated as Inadequate for safe, responsive and well-led, and Requires Improvement for effective and caring. The services provided by the practice have been rated as Inadequate overall.

Alison Holbourn, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice at CQC said:

“We found that people registered with The Matthews Practice Belgrave are not getting the high quality care which everyone should expect to receive from their GP."

“It was worrying to see that comprehensive processes were not in place to keep patients safe, and some risks to patients were not well assessed nor well managed particularly around standards of cleanliness and hygiene."

“Data showed that the outcomes of patients registered with this practice were not as good as when compared to national averages. Although it was encouraging to see that audits had taken place, it was disappointing that there was little evidence these audits were being used to drive improvement in patient care."

“I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without external support; therefore we are placing the practice into special measures ensures that action will be taken to improve the quality of care for patients.”

A full report of this inspection has been published on our website.    

Some of the areas where CQC have told the practice they must improve are: 

  • The practice must ensure an infection prevention and control audit is undertaken at both sites and immediate actions taken in accord with the findings.
  • Ensure all staff have access to and undertake appropriate training for their role and receive updates as required.
  • Review the systems in place to ensure the availability of appropriate emergency medicines at the sites where minor surgery is performed.

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.

Patients registered with the practices being placed into special measures should be aware that a package of support is offered by NHS England and the Royal College of GPs to 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 Engagement Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966. 

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We found that people registered with The Matthews Practice Belgrave are not getting the high quality care which everyone should expect to receive from their GP.

Alison Holbourn, CQC Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.