West Yorkshire GP practice rated 'inadequate'.

A Wakefield GP practice  has been placed into special measures by England’s chief inspector of general practice following a damning inspection by the Care Quality Commission  (CQC).

Inspectors rated Eastmoor Health Centre inadequate for ‘safety’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘well led’ and ‘requires improvement’ for ‘responsiveness and caring.’

Overall the service was rated inadequate. The inspection report highlighted a number of areas of concern including that the practice had no patient participation and the national GP patient survey showed that, in many areas, patients rated  the practice below local and national averages.

Inspectors found that staff meetings were infrequent and that staff appraisals did not include all staff. There was also evidence of limited staff oversight, monitoring and supervision in some specialist areas of work.

The practice was rated as ‘requires improvement’ when last inspected in October 2016.

Deputy chief inspector of general practice for the north, Alison Holbourn, said: “Providers should use our inspection reports to understand the problems and to rectify them as a matter of urgency so it is worrying that, at this latest inspection, the service had deteriorated.”

Inspectors found that the practice’s arrangements for managing medicines, including emergency medicines, was inadequate. Not all medicines and patient safety alerts had been monitored or actioned. Where they were kept, records of alerts and action taken were incomplete.

Alison Holbourn added: “This last point is of particular concern as the service had been warned of this in August 2016.

“We always inspect the quality of care for six population groups: older people; those with long-term conditions; families, children and young people; working age people; those whose circumstances may make them vulnerable and people experiencing poor mental health.

“At the October 2016 inspection each of these categories had been rated as requires improvement. This time I am very disappointed that the practice is rated inadequate in all six groups. These areas will need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

“It is important that patients registered with Eastmoor Medical Practice can rely on getting high quality care and, due to the concerns identified during this inspection, CQC has placed this service into special measures.

“It will be inspected again within six months, if it is still operating. The service will be kept under review and could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. If there is not enough improvement, we will move to close the service.”