Surgery on mend after bad report

A Wigan medical centre has been praised for ensuring patient safety is a top priority - after a critical inspection more than a year ago.

When inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Bradshaw Medical Partnership in October 2016 they raised a number of concerns about how incidents and “near-misses” had gone unreported at the Orrell surgery.

CQC officials also told bosses at the Bradshaw Street centre that they must tighten up on infection control and patient safety measures. And they were ordered to pay extra attention to handling important medical supplies like liquid nitrogen.

Patients said they were treated with “compassion, dignity and respect” and felt they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.

But the surgery was put on notice that it had been rated as “requiring improvement” and a follow-up visit took place last April. While the inspection team was happy that some of the difficulties had begun to be addressed, there was still scope for better performance.

Prof Steve Field, the Chief Inspector of General Practice, has now confirmed that, following a further review at the end of October, the practice is now regarded as “good”.

In a letter to the surgery, he said: “There was a leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The practice pro-actively sought feedback from patients, which it acted on. There was now a formal mechanism to obtain feedback from staff.

“There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events.

“Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.

“A mechanism to record and monitor all staff training, including clinical staff, was in place.

“Information about services and how to complain was available. Improvements had been made to the quality of care as a result of historic complaints and concerns.

“There was now a system to formally record and monitor verbal comments and concerns. This had been recently introduced and was now effective.”

The announcement means that all GP surgeries in Wigan borough are now rated as good or better.