A Westminster GP surgery has been told to improve its safety protocols after an inspection revealed out-of-date equipment and missing medicines at the site.
Inspection Findings
St Johns Wood Medical Practice, which serves about 24,432 people under the NHS North and West London Integrated Care Board, had its overall rating downgraded from 'Good' to 'Requires Improvement'.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessment, published on June 3, highlighted deficiencies in the 'safe' and 'well-led' categories. Inspectors discovered out-of-date oxygen cylinders stored next to in-date ones, posing a risk of confusion. Many of the items used to resuscitate someone in cardiac arrest were also missing or past their use-by dates.
Further findings included the absence of essential medicines like morphine and anti-sickness tablets (antiemetics), although diclofenac injections were available. There were also no paediatric defibrillator pads for use in an emergency, which are used to help safely resuscitate a child.
Ratings and Governance
Despite these serious concerns, the practice maintained a 'Good' rating for its 'effective', 'caring', and 'responsive' services.
“We found issues related to safeguarding, safe environments, clinical care, emergency medicines and emergency equipment. We found that some required items were not available for use in the event of a medical emergency and staff training was not up to date,” reads the inspection report section on safety.
Governance, management and sustainability at the practice was given the lowest possible score of one. Leaders weren’t able to show that regular audits of emergency equipment and medicines were carried out and there was no effective system to track staff training, the report said.
However, the practice “generally delivered services in line with good practice”. Complaints were found to be handled appropriately and interpreting services were offered to those who needed them.
“People were treated with kindness and compassion by the clinical staff. The dignity and privacy of patients were respected. Staff felt valued and appreciated. Staff wellbeing was treated with the utmost importance by the service,” said the inspection report.
Practice Response
A spokesperson for St Johns Wood Medical Practice said: “We were pleased that in our latest CQC visit, 3 out of the 5 domains were Good including good patient feedback. We were disappointed however that in 2 out of the 5 domains we were rated as ‘requires improvement’.
“We disagreed with some of the report’s findings and formally appealed, some of which were rejected by the CQC and so we will now be challenging their processes. We still believe that they have graded us incorrectly in certain areas.
“Nevertheless, we are now working at pace to implement changes based on the findings of their report and will continue to offer what we (and we hope our patients) think is a personal, highly accessible and excellent medical care to our registered patients.”
