PATIENTS attending a Poole GP surgery have been put at risk of harm, according to a damning report by an independent health watchdog.

The Herbert Avenue Medical Centre has been placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), after an inspection in July.

It has been rated “inadequate” overall and ordered to make improvements within six months or face possible enforcement action.

CQC deputy chief inspector of general practice Ruth Rankine said: “Herbert Avenue did not have a clear leadership structure in place to deliver high quality care which everyone is entitled to from their GP practice.

“Patients were at risk of harm because systems currently in place were not embedded well enough to keep them safe.”

“For example, opportunities to learn and improve from incidents and concerns were missed.”

Inspectors rated the service inadequate for being safe and well-led, ruled that it requires improvement to be more effective and responsive to people’s needs, but rated the practice good for caring.

Key findings identified in the CQC report included: n Patients were at risk of harm as the service had not taken adequate steps to keep them safe. Concerns were identified with fire, safety and infection control at the practice.

n Staff were not up to date with relevant training policies including national patient safety alerts, safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

n Management had failed to follow basic recruitment guidelines, and some nurses were not registered with the appropriate body.

n Investigations following concerns and incidents were not thorough enough, and communication with staff was limited.

In a joint statement, GP partners Dr Iain Fullerton and Dr Anna Reidy said: “We are disappointed that following the CQC inspection in July we have been awarded the overall rating of inadequate.”However, in a rapidly changing NHS which causes increased demands on our time, our priority has always been and will always be to spend time seeing and caring for our patients and we are pleased to say that in the same inspection our rating for care was good.”The two GPs said they acknowledged areas highlighted by the CQC as needing improvement, and said they had already started improving on them.

“These are mainly non-clinical areas around administrative staff training, health and safety problems involved in working from older premises, the need for more detailed record keeping and more meetings to improve communication between staff,” they said. “We would like to reassure our patients that we are working hard to address the concerns raised by the CQC in order to improve our rating, and that we remain committed to their health and care above all.”

While in special measures the practice can access support from NHS England and other healthcare organisations.

The CQC will continuing monitoring the Herbert Avenue surgery and inspect it again in six months.

“If we find that the service remains inadequate,” said Mrs Rankine, “we will consider taking further enforcement action.”