Surgery not in a good state of health

REQUIRES improvement . . . Springfield House Medical Centre

AN Oldham GP surgery must make urgent improvements after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection found patients were “at risk of harm” due to the lack of appropriate safety measures.

Springfield House Medical Centre in Huddersfield Road received a “requires Improvement” rating following a routine visit. The practice, which has over 7,500 patients, was rated “inadequate” in the service safety category — the lowest rating — and “requires improvement” in effectiveness and leadership categories.

The commission’s report said: “Safeguarding measures weren’t effective, recruitment procedures were inadequate and medicine management was ineffective.”

Inspectors found a shopping bag in a treatment room cupboard in which were opened and unopened medicines - including controlled drugs such as morphine. The report said: “Many of these appeared to have been prescribed to patients and some were partly used. Most of these medicines had passed their expiry date. We spoke to the GPs and practice manager and they could provide no explanation as to their presence.”

Other problems included treatment room equipment, including needles, being past their expiry date.

The practice, which has five GPs, was criticised for lacking a “clear leadership structure”.

Practice manager Janet Stevenson said the practice will be having an urgent meeting with staff to discuss the report, but stressed that patients were safe.

She said: “We estimate that 65 per cent of what was mentioned has already been put right by the practice, including a lot of the paperwork which was found to be out of date. Patients at our practice are safe and do not need to worry. We believe the ‘inadequate’ rating was a bit harsh but will ensure we make the necessary improvements in the quickest time frame possible.”