Newbury surgery ordered to make improvements following inspection
CQC inspectors rate Eastfield House Surgery as "requires improvement" during inspection last month
A DOCTORS surgery in Newbury has been told by inspectors from the health watchdog that it must make improvements in order to provide safe and effective care.
Eastfield House Surgery in St John’s Road, was rated overall as ‘requires improvement’ by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission after a visit on June 2.
The same rating was given when assessing the safety of the services and whether they were effective.
However, the surgery was rated ‘good’ in three categories; caring, responsive and leadership.
Inspectors spoke to GPs, nurses and other members of staff, as well as 12 patients, and found that the processes in place following incidents or complaints were inadequate.
It was also found that some staff did not have the relevant background checks to be working with patients.
In their report published this month, inspectors said that “when things went wrong, reviews and investigations were not thorough enough and lessons learned were not communicated widely enough to support improvement”.
The report noted that the surgery’s medicines management processes did not ensure the “safe use of medicines or that prescriptions could only be generated by authorised personnel”.
Inspectors also said that the surgery required improvement to provide care across all patient groups including older people, people with long- term conditions, children, vulnerable people and those experiencing poor mental health as some staff had not had appropriate background checks or proper training in safeguarding vulnerable adults.
The surgery, which currently has 12,600 registered patients, must improve reviewing the process for investigating and implementing change following incidents or complaints, ensure that blank prescription forms are used appropriately and that appropriate staff background checks are undertaken.
The surgery said it was currently preparing a response to the CQC.
