A report from the Care Quality Commission [CQC] report places Whitehawk GP practice, in Special Measures.
The Broadway GP Surgery in Whitehawk, Brighton has been found inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and given 6 months to remedy the significant number of issues that have been found to be substandard in the surgery.
Healthwatch Brighton & Hove (HWBH) is particularly concerned because this is the eighth practice in Brighton & Hove where there have been problems, in just over a year, and the third practice in the East of the city, where deprivation levels are high and inequalities in health are already a cause for concern.
This GP Practice has been found to be “Unsatisfactory” on Safety, Effective Services and Leadership and as “Requiring Improvement” on Providing Caring Services and Being Responsive to People’s Needs.
For example, the report found:
♦ Patients were at risk of harm because systems and processes were not in place to keep them safe with no evidence that appropriate recruitment checks on staff had been undertaken prior to their employment.
♦ Effective arrangements for managing medicines, including emergency drugs, vaccines and high risk medicines were not in place.
♦ Not all staff were clear about how to report incidents, near misses and concerns.
♦ Not all staff who acted as chaperones had received training for the role. Also there was no evidence to show that all staff had received up to date training on basic life support.
♦ Not all staff who acted as chaperones had received a Disclosure and Barring Service check (DBS check).
♦ Staff had not received any training on infection control.
♦ The practice was unable to demonstrate effective management of complaints since 2014.
♦ The practice had not undertaken any audits of clinical practice to ensure improved outcomes for patients and there was no evidence of any quality improvement.
♦ There was a large variation in practice performance against the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) and national prescribing indicators compared to the clinical commissioning group (CCG) and national averages.
The CQC report lists 14 areas where the providers must make improvements and 3 additional areas where they should make improvements.
The practice has 6 months to make the required improvements or face further action by the CQC.
The Broadway Practice provides GP services to over 2400 people in the Whitehawk locality and is based at the Wellsbourne Centre, East Brighton
Fran McCabe, chair of HWBH, said: “This is yet another example of a low quality service in an area which has had a series of problems with the provision of GP services. East Brighton faces multiple social disadvantages, is the most disadvantaged part of our City and local people deserve better quality, reliable, safe and accessible GP services.”
This CQC inspection echo’s issues that have been found to be unsatisfactory in other CQC inspections in Brighton and Hove including the Goodwood Court Medical Centre which was closed by the CQC in the last year.
Over the last year HWBH received over 500 responses from local people in a questionnaire based survey they conducted into people experiences of GP services. In addition, using their ‘Enter and View’ powers they visited 15 GP Practices and will shortly be providing them with detailed feedback based on their findings.
Healthwatch Brighton and Hove will continue to work closely with NHS England and the local Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG] to help improve GP services and other health and social care services in Brighton and Hove.
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