Manchester GP in "special measures".

A Manchester GP surgery has been rated inadequate and placed into special measures by England’s Chief Inspector of General Practice following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A specialist team of inspectors rated the Brooks Bar Medical Centre, Stretford, as inadequate for providing safe, well-led services, which were responsive to people’s needs; ‘requires improvement’ for providing effective services, and ‘good’ for caring services. The medical centre was also rated ‘inadequate’ for the services provided to all population groups.

Overall, Brooks Bar Medical Centre was rated ‘inadequate’ and placed in special measures. The practice was visited in November 2015 by an inspection team including a GP and a practice manager as specialist advisors, and an ‘expert-by- experience’.

Patients told inspectors that the practice treated them with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.

However, inspectors found that, while the practice had systems in place to report and record incidents, investigations were not thorough enough and lessons learned were not communicated widely. Staff did not have access to appropriate training and the practice did not manage risks to patients in areas such as medicine management, recruitment and medical emergencies, well enough. /more...

CQC deputy chief inspector of general practice for the North of England, Sue McMillan, said: “Brooks Bar Medical Centre’s systems need to be strengthened to ensure that incidents are investigated thoroughly and that learning takes place which is shared widely throughout the staff at the practice.

“Action must also be taken to address our wider concerns so that patients receive safe, high-quality primary care. I do not believe that the practice is likely to resolve its challenges without external support. This is why we are placing the practice into special measures.

“After a period of six months we will inspect again to check whether sufficient improvements have been made. If we find that the service remains inadequate, we consider steps to cancel its CQC registration.”