'Inadequate' Doncaster GP surgery put in special measures after damning inspection

The Northfield Surgery in Thorne could be shut down after it was dubbed as ‘inadequate’ by health bosses in an inspection report which has just been published.

The practice, in Fieldside, has repeatedly finished at the bottom of patient satisfaction surveys in recent years.

Now doctors at the surgery have been given six months to turn around the failing practice – or risk closure.

The report by the Care Quality Commission said: "This service is being placed in special measures.

"Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.

"This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

“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, we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.

“Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.”

The inspection, carried out in May this year rated the practice as inadequate in terms of safety, effectiveness, responsivity and leadership.

It also said that it’s caring required improvement.

In 2018, the practice had been rated good – but inspectors were called in “following receipt of information of concern.”

The report added: “We found that the practice was unable to demonstrate that safe systems or practices were in place or working effectively in relation to medicines management, safeguarding, recruitment, or the management of risks to patients or staff.

It added: “The surgery was unable to demonstrate that action taken to address below target uptake for childhood immunisation and cervical screening had led to any improvements in these data.

"Additionally, the practice was unable to demonstrate that patients’ needs were always met, that staffing was effective or that they had actively engaged in joined up working.

“The surgery was unable to demonstrate that they had taken action to address poor satisfaction of patients who responded to the GP patient survey, or those patients in their internal survey that were less satisfied than others.

"They were also unable to demonstrate that a carers register was in place or was being used to provide caring services for those patients.

“Furthermore, we saw that there was a decline in patient satisfaction over time in previous surveys and there was no system in place to address this.

“Clinical and non-clinical leadership were unable to demonstrate adequate capacity to deliver high-quality or fully safe services which had led to significant gaps throughout the service.

To turn itself around, CQC chiefs said the surgery must:

Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider should also:

Take steps to address low uptake in cervical screening and childhood immunisations.

Review all areas of patient satisfaction survey data and address concerns raised.

Ensure vulnerable patients including all carers, all people with a learning disability and other vulnerable patients are identified and appropriately supported.