A GP surgery co-run by an ex-Oldham council cabinet member for health has been told to improve by a government watchdog.
The Chapel Street GP surgery in Royton has been rated ‘requires improvement’ overall after being inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The practice is run by Royton Medical Centre, which is registered to two partners, one of whom is Dr Zahid Chauhan.
Dr Chauhan is a serving councillor and was on the senior political leadership team as the cabinet member with responsibility for health until May. He is now deputy mayor. The CQC said the practice on Chapel Street was ‘good’ in the categories of ‘effective’ and ‘caring’ but on leadership, it was ‘inadequate’.
It also found the inspection categories of safe and responsiveness ‘requires improvement’. There were also two breaches of CQC regulations in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance.
Oldham council’s leader Amanda Chadderton has said the GP services being offered to Royton residents ‘must improve’. And progress reports about the NHS services on offer will now be discussed at future cabinet meetings.
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Royton Medical Centre said it welcomed the ‘constructive criticism’ from the CQC and that the issues identified had already been ‘acted on and addressed’.
Inspectors said that the system for obtaining disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks at the surgery was not effective, and medicine reviews were completed without patient involvement and without all the required checks.
They found two non-clinical members of staff did not have a DBS check, despite one having worked there for 18 months.
However the CQC stated that patients received ‘effective care and treatment that met their needs’, and staff dealt with patients with ‘kindness and respect’.
But inspectors added: “Leaders were not always aware of the risks, issues and challenges in the service. We saw examples of systems and processes that were not effective, including the process for requesting Disclosure and Barring Service checks, the process for checking emergency medicines and the process to manage significant events and complaints.”
They added the practice website was ‘difficult to navigate’ and included incorrect information.
The Oldham Integrated Care Partnership, formerly known as the Clinical Commissioning Group, is to conduct a ‘quality assurance’ exercise with the practice to address the issues identified by the care watchdog.
Mike Barker, Oldham Integrated Care Partnership Lead, said: “It was disappointing to learn of the ‘requires improvement’ outcome of the recent inspection.
“Ensuring all residents have access to high quality, safe GP care is of the utmost importance to us, just as it is patients. Therefore, we will be working closely with the practice over the coming months to help it to return to being rated ‘good’.”
Mr Barker added: “There was a lot that was positive in the report. The practice was rated as ‘good’ for caring and effective, and it was found that patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs and that staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
“However, we are concerned at the ‘inadequate’ rating for leadership of the practice and the finding of breaches of two CQC regulations”.
“Therefore, my team will be undertaking a detailed Quality Assurance exercise with the practice which will result in agreeing a contractual compliance plan, requiring specific actions to address the shortcomings found. This will be followed up with further regular monitoring meetings until such time as we are satisfied that all issues are resolved”.
“Throughout, we will be keeping patients and community representatives informed of progress made and will work closely with CQC colleagues”.
In a statement, Royton Medical Centre said it welcomed the CQC’s findings as ‘constructive criticism on which to build on and learn from’. It added: “Furthermore, we recognise it as typical of a national picture of general practice at a place of post-pandemic and scarce resource, where keeping up with changing processes has not always been easy.
“It was particularly pleasing that the CQC saw what we do every day – a staff who in trying circumstances, are kind and professional in the care they administer with a particular concern for the vulnerable.
“Our pioneering work in making sure the homeless received quality healthcare was cited, as was our proactive work contacting the neediest patients to check on their health and wellbeing before potential problems escalated.
“The inspectors also noted our flexibility and availability in trying to meet the increasing demand from patients, matching appointments to windows in their busy lives.
“Constructive feedback is worthless unless acted upon, and we can assure the community that issues raised in the CQC report have already been acted upon and addressed. We look forward to welcoming the CQC back in the near future so that they can see the improvements we have made.
“Meanwhile, regardless of the increasing pressures placed upon us and the lack of resource spent on primary care, Royton Medical Centre will continue to deliver the robust, inclusive and most importantly compassionate healthcare the CQC inspectors have celebrated.”
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