No System for Continuous Improvement Contributes to CQC Placing GP Practice into Special Measures

A Croydon GP practice has been rated as Inadequate overall and placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission.

Denmark Road Surgery, which looks after 6,200 patients, was rated Inadequate for being safe, effective and well-led. It was rated Requires Improvement for being caring and responsive, following the inspection in August 2018.

Key Concerns

• There was no effective system to ensure learning and improvement after things went wrong. 
• There was no effective system to ensure that all staff received the training and support requires for their roles.
• Patients found it difficult to get through to the practice by telephone. 
• There was little or no evidence of improvement following complaints. 
• There was insufficient leadership in some areas of practice governance, particularly related to safety and the management of staff.

To keep practising the surgery must now improve systems to ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients and must establish effective ways to establish good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The practice has also been advised to improve the recording of patients with caring responsibilities, improve arrangements for managing confidentiality around the reception and improve the uptake of cancer screening.

Professor Ursula Gallagher, Deputy Chief Inspector, Primary Medical Services, said: “I am concerned that the Denmark Road Surgery is rated Inadequate overall and must be placed in special measures, which will give it access to support that should help it to improve.

“People who use the service should be reassured that 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 six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.”