A surgery in Carlton has been placed in special measures after inspectors found the quality of care to be ‘inadequate overall’.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission rated the Willows Medical Centre practice as “inadequate for being safe, effective, responsive and well-led”, and said it “requires improvement for being caring” following an inspection in June 2016.
The inspection was carried out following serious concerns highlighted to the commission.
The Willows Medical Centre provides primary medical services to approximately 3,600 patients in Carlton, Gedling Village and Mapperley in Nottinghamshire.
The report found that patients were at risk of harm because systems and processes were not in place to keep them safe. It also claimed the practice was employing a healthcare assistant to undertake tasks normally carried out by a doctor.
READ MORE: Notts North & East CCG ‘shocked’ by findings in report on Willows Medical Centre
It said there was no evidence to demonstrate the healthcare assistant had the adequate training and were competent to undertake a number of the tasks allocated to them.
This member of staff was undertaking examinations, assessments and diagnoses of patients in spite of not being a registered or regulated healthcare professional in this country.
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The report highlights a number of areas of concerns, including:
• People did not feel confident about reporting incidents within the practice due to being reprimanded for doing this. Patient feedback indicated serious concerns were raised with the practice manager following a GP consultation but there was no evidence to show this had been recorded or investigated.
• There were minimal arrangements in place to ensure staff were trained, supervised and supported in the roles and in the tasks they were expected to undertake.
• Evidence from the clinical system showed that care and treatment was not being delivered in line with local and national guidelines.
• Patients told us they found it difficult to book appointments in advance and a review of the appointment systems showed no appointments available to pre-book.
• The practice did not have effective system in place to check the expiry dates of medical consumables. For example, inspectors found a large amount of out of date medical consumables including dressings, boric acid urine sample pots, histological specimen pots and over 100 blood collection tubes.
“There was a culture of fear and blame within the practice and we were not assured that all significant events were reported and used as opportunities to improve safety within the practice”
Janet Williamson, deputy chief inspector of General Practice and Dentistry in CQC’s Central region said a “considerable amount” of concerns were uncovered following their inspection in June.
She said: “As well as the serious concern surrounding the unregistered staff member carrying out tasks they were not qualified for, there were not enough staff within the practice to ensure patients were kept safe. Staff told us that requests for additional staff had been refused.
“The provider did not have arrangements in place to ensure safe, high quality care was provided to patients and had knowingly employed a healthcare assistant to undertake medical examinations which were outside the scope of the role and for which the individual was not registered or regulated.
“There was a culture of fear and blame within the practice and we were not assured that all significant events were reported and used as opportunities to improve safety within the practice.
She added: “CQC is continuing to work closely with Nottingham North and East Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England to ensure all patients of the surgery have continued access to alternative GP services in the area.
“We will continue to monitor this practice closely alongside partner agencies to check whether sustainable improvements have been made.
“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.”
Did you use the surgery? Do you agree with the findings of the report? Let us know in the comments section below.
