Shelley Manor and Holdenhurst Medical Centre ordered to improve

Safety procedures at the Shelley Manor and Holdenhurst Medical Centre in Bournemouth were criticised and inspectors said leadership needs to improve.

The Care Quality Commission has to answer five questions when it visits a site .

Are services safe, are services effective and are services well-led all received a rating of Requires Improvement.

Are services caring and are services responsive to people's needs were both designated as Good.

The practice operates over two sites in Beechwood Avenue, Boscombe Manor and Holdenhurst Road in Boscombe.

It has 10 partners, six salaried GPs, a clinical pharmacist, a pharmacy technician, three advanced nurse practitioners, three practice nurses, two healthcare assistants and one phlebotomist.

Inspectors paid a short-notice visit to the Beechwood Avenue site on November 4 last year after concerns about patients and staff safety were raised during a remote inspection a month earlier.

Now the provider has been ordered to "establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care."

It has also been urged to review infection prevention procedures and to improve the uptake of cervical screening.

It has been asked to consider ways to engage with hard to reach families, including making them aware of immunisation available for their children.

Examples of events recorded by the practice included an occasion when the wrong prescription was placed on to a patient's notes. It was queried by a pharmacist and stopped before it could reach the patient.

Just 65.7 per cent of eligible women had been screened for cervical cancer against an average in England of 80 per cent.

A total of 48.3 per cent of people aged 60-69 had been screened for bowel cancer compared to an average of 58 per cent and 60.5 per cent of women aged 50-70 had been screened for breast cancer against an average of 71.6 per cent.

The report said learning was not always shared between staff and the practice did not have clear and effective processes for managing risks, issues and performance.

Doctor Andrew Blaszczyk, a senior partner at the practice, said: "We were disappointed with the rating we recently received from the Care Quality Commission, particularly since our staff have been working very hard to ensure patient care can continue during the pandemic. However, we are already working to improve in the areas indicated by the report, and in many instances this has already been carried out.

"We were very pleased to see that we retained our rating of ‘good’ in the areas of services being caring and services being responsive to people’s needs.

"We have a great team of staff at Shelley Manor & Holdenhurst Medical Centre, and will be working with them to ensure our practice has the best level of care for patients both now and in the future."