GP surgery vows to improve

INADEQUATE . . . Springfield House Medical Centre

AN OLDHAM GP surgery was placed in special measures after CQC inspectors rated it "inadequate".

Springfield House Medical Centre was found to have worsened across four of five categories since the time of its last inspection.

The Huddersfield Road surgery was told it was "inadequate" for safety, effectiveness and leadership and "requires improvement" when it comes to care provision and "responsiveness".

Partners at the medical centre apologised to patients and said steps have and will continue to be taken to resolve areas of concern.

They pledged to "continue delivering the appropriate care" to patients as improvements are carried out.

Chief inspector of general practice Steve Field said in the December report: "The safety of care for older people was not a priority. Home visits were not managed in a way that identified those in urgent need of medical attention.

"The practice is rated as 'inadequate' for the care of older people, people with long-term conditions, families, children and young people, working-age people, people whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health.

"Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve."

NHS health checks for patients aged 40 to 75 were found to have begun only recently and were described as being offered on an "ad hoc basis".

Staff training was found to be incomplete, appraisals were not carried out for more than one year and some equipment was not functional.

Attention

Mr Field added: "There was insufficient attention to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

"Although staff told us checks were in place we found several out-of-date items, including medical instruments five years past their expiry date.

"Some patients told us they had been provided with a chaperone without requesting one, with one patient saying they found this embarrassing as they knew staff at the practice.

"Training was not well monitored, with the last recorded date for some appraisals being over four years ago."

The announced inspection was carried out in September, after a report in March 2015 revealed the surgery "required improvement".

In the latest report, the centre was told to introduce effective governance, complete relevant staff training and review its chaperone procedures.

Other areas for improvement included ensuring patients under 16 could attend appointments without a parent or guardian and improving access to health checks for those aged 40 and over.

Another inspection will be undertaken at the surgery within six months by which time improvements are expected to have been made.

Positive elements highlighted by inspectors included audits being carried out, a patient participation group (PPG) and patients who said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.

Partners at Springfield House Medical Centre said in a joint statement: "The recent publication of the CQC report following the inspection of our surgery has identified our services as inadequate, despite hard work of all our staff and changes we have made following the previous inspection.

"We would like to take this opportunity to firstly apologise to our patients and secondly to state our intent to rectify any deficiencies fairly identified.

"We would also like to clarify that our clinical services were identified as good, at or above local and national average performance indicators. We believe we deliver high-quality clinical care to our patients, and will continue to endeavour to do so.

"We have already started working on managerial and administrative issues and taken steps to start to resolve areas of concern.

"We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our patients and our Patient Participation Group for their support at this time, and to reassure them that we will continue to deliver the appropriate care whilst working on improvements."