A GP surgery in Poole faces enforcement action if it does not improve following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Longfleet House Surgery was given six months to address the issues that led to its overall ‘requires improvement’ rating. Inspectors placed the surgery in special measures following a previous inspection in September 2017. However, a report published this month following the most recent follow-up inspection in January stated “insufficient improvements have been made”. The practice remains ‘inadequate’ in one of the CQC’s five inspection areas – well-led – and ‘requires improvement’ in the other four – safe, effective, caring and responsive.

The surgery, which has a patient list of around 3,700 people, has two GP partners and two salaried GPs but is still recruiting for other roles, including a practice nurse, according to the CQC.

In his report published April 1, inspector Professor Steve Field explained some of the factors behind the surgery’s rating: “The practice had experienced staff leaving and had not been able to recruit into these roles, partly due to national shortages of skilled staff. There were shortfalls in the provision of management hours to enable good governance of the practice, which potentially impacted on risk management processes.

“The registered manager was also responsible for other GP practices and therefore had other responsibilities in addition to overseeing Longfleet House Surgery.”

According to the report, the surgery was not meeting certain legal requirements, namely: ‘provision of management hours to enable good governance of the practice’ and ‘reviewing policies and procedures to ensure information was accurate and relevant’. A business continuity plan had not been reviewed since March 2018, despite staff leaving the practice, which was in breach of a regulation in the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Professor Field concluded: “We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection at Longfleet House Surgery on 30 January 2019. At this inspection we followed up on breaches of regulations identified at a previous inspection on 16 May 2018.

“This service was placed in special measures in September 2017. Insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for well led. Therefore, we are taking action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.

“This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve. The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action.

“Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to vary the provider’s registration to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.”

The Daily Echo was unable to obtain a comment from the surgery at the time of going to press.