HATHERLEIGH Medical Centre has been placed into special measures after an inspection by the Care Quality Commision (CQC) found the quality of care at the centre to be inadequate.

The Hatherleigh Medical Centre provides primary medical services to approximately 2,180 patients at its practice. When a service is in special measures it is the provider’s responsibility to improve, seeking appropriate support from its own resources and from other relevant organisations. When possible, the CQC will signpost providers to improvement support agencies.  

Those services will be inspected again within six months. If a service demonstrates improve-ments and is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions the CQC will take it out of special measures. If sufficient improvements have not been made and there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, the CQC will take further action which may include cancelling the registration of that service. 

Under CQC’s programme of inspections, all of England’s GP practices are being given a rating according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.  Inspectors rated the practice inadequate for being safe and well-led, plus requiring improvement for being caring, effective and responsive to people’s needs. 

Ruth Rankine, deputy chief inspector of general practice for the South, said: ‘It is important that the people who are registered with the Hatherleigh Medical Centre can rely on getting the high quality care which everyone is entitled to receive from their GP.

‘We have found significant areas of concern, which is why we are placing the practice into special measures — so opening the way to support from NHS England among others.

‘We will continue to monitor this practice and we will inspect again in six months to check whether improvements have been made. I believe that the practice will do what is required for the sake of its patients.’ 

In a statement, the medical centre said: ‘In April this year, the Care Quality Commission inspected Hatherleigh Medical Centre. CQC is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. We have received the results and we have been given an overall rating of inadequate.

‘As a consequence, we have been given notices requiring improvements to be made. This means that we have six months to make changes in the identified areas. The CQC will return in six months’ time to do another inspection.

‘Please be assured that the CQC did not find the practice unsafe. However, it did highlight a number of areas within the practice that need to be addressed.

‘We now have an action plan from the CQC which we are determined to implement. We are working closely with NHS England to make improvements in the areas identified as inadequate and requiring improvement.

‘With this action under way, we are committed to ensuring that the evidence is in place so that our ratings are adequate in all areas when the CQC returns. In fact many of the issues highlighted in the report have already been addressed and we welcome feedback from our patients.’

The report highlights a number of areas where improvements must be made. Staff told the inspectors that the partners were approachable and took the time to listen to all members of staff, but that the practice was disorganised. 

The majority of patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect. However, not all felt cared for, supported and listened to by the GPs. 

Although there were a number of monthly patient record checks to monitor patient conditions, the inspector said they saw insufficient evidence that formal audits were driving improvements in patient outcomes.

Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns and to report incidents and near misses. When things went wrong reviews and investigations were thorough. However, lessons learned were not communicated widely enough to support improvement.