Buckshaw Village Surgery 'Requires Improvement' as medicine not managed properly and patients unable to access care at times

Although rated Good in the Caring aspect, the health practice was deemed Inadequate in Safety, and Requiring Improvement overall in three areas - Responsive, Well-led and Effective in an inspection carried out on December 9 last year.

The report, carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which was published last Friday (February 18), said it found that there were a significant number of issues relating to safety including gaps in relation to medicines management and found numerous patients had not had appropriate monitoring for their medicines or conditions.

Inspectors also found systems were ineffective in assessing, monitoring and mitigating risks to patients' health, safety and welfare, as well as those of other people.

There were concerns with recruitment systems that were in place including where conduct of staff had not been checked from a previous employer, contracts unsigned and DBS checks missing.

The report said: "We found that risk management was not always effective. For example, infection control audits that were in place were not working as intended.

"Systems to govern staffing were not working effectively and performance assurance systems were not working as intended. We saw that the practice had exceeded targets on childhood immunisations but had not yet reached cervical screening targets, given the pressure the sector had been under."

The report praised one area of ‘outstanding practice,’ thanks to a Covid-19 vaccine centre which had been set up in Preston and had vaccinated 103,000 patients in the last year and said feedback had been positive for this.

Risk management was not always effective. For example, infection control audits that were in place staff had not been checked from a previous employer, contracts unsigned and DBS checks missing.

However, it was found that staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care and that the practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the pandemic.

Patients felt that they could not always access care and treatment in a timely way. The practice had taken action to address this including self-funding a new telephony system; but as this was newly established, they were unable to demonstrate that it had yet been successful.

"There was a disconnect between practice leaders’ expectations of day to day operations and the reality of these."

The health watchdog has now demanded a detailed report, outlining what steps will be taken to meet the areas where legal requirements were not being met.

The Buckshaw Village Surgery has been blighted with a barrage of problems since last year including staff members being verbally abused over waiting times as residents reported experiencing long delays for appointments, which NM Health Innovations stated at the time was due to staff absences due to sickness and self-isolation.

The surgery has been approached for comment.