Oldham GP Surgery Placed into Special Measures by the Care Quality Commission

England's Chief Inspector of General Practice has rated an Oldham GP Practice, Springfield House, as Inadequate and placed it into special measures following an inspection by the CQC in September.

The practice was rated as Inadequate for safe, effective, and well-led domains, and rated as 'Requires Improvement' for caring and responsive. The services provided by the practice have been rated as Inadequate overall.

The practice has been told it must:

• Put systems in place to ensure staff are appropriately trained and that training remains current for their role.
• Introduce effective monitoring and processes for reporting, recording and acting on significant events, investigating and responding to complaints and ensuring all medical equipment is within its expiry date.
• Review chaperone procedures to avoid embarrassment to patients.
• Ensure access to appointments is available for patients under the age of 16 who have the appropriate level of competence and wish to attend without a parent or guardian.
• Ensure all employment checks are in place at recruitment to ensure well-qualified staff are employed.

The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement the CQC will move to close the service.

Alison Holbourn, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice at CQC said: "We found that people registered with Springfield House aren't getting the high quality care which everyone should expect to receive from their GP practice.

“It was worrying to see that training at the practice wasn't well monitored and there was no evidence of all staff completing the appropriate training to carry out their role. We found that the practice weren't responsive to the needs of the people using the service, for example we saw no extended opening times, or programmes for specific groups such as carers.

"I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without external support; placing the practice into special measures ensures that action will be taken to improve the quality of care for patients."