Watchdog puts new Sussex GP practice into special measures

A GP practice with surgeries in West Sussex has been placed into special measures after an inspection by the health and care regulator.

Modality Mid Sussex, which has sites in Crawley, Burgess Hill and two in East Grinstead, was created by the merger of four existing practices.

Regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), gave the practice an overall rating of ‘inadequate’ for being safe, responsive, and well led. It was also rated as ‘requires improvement’ for being effective and good for caring.

Modality Mid Sussex said it plans to spend the next six months transforming the practice.

The inspection was carried out after concerns were raised about patients' access to services and because the practice was newly registered.

CQC deputy operations director in the south, Neil Cox, said:   "On the day appointments were often filled by mid-morning and reception staff were then asked to redirect people to local accident and emergency departments, community pharmacies and the local walk-in minor injuries unit or contact NHS 111.

"We found some people identified as having a potential missed diagnosis of diabetes hadn't received follow up blood tests within the required timescale.

"We saw some people diagnosed with asthma and prescribed rescue steroids had been issued with the wrong dosage and the supporting documentation wasn't detailed enough."

Senior partner at Modality Mid Sussex, Dr Sharon Pruden, said: "We have an improvement plan in place, and we are already making progress in key areas such as numbers of appointments offered and recruitment.

"We are confident the improvements underway will have a positive impact on patient experience and areas highlighted will be rectified as soon as possible."

Chief primary care officer at NHS Sussex, Amy Galea, said: "We have been working with the team at Modality Mid Sussex for several months to understand the areas of improvement raised by patients earlier this year and to support the measures the practice team identified to address them.