February 19, 2016 12.06 pm This story is over 97 months old

Lincoln GP surgery ‘requires improvement’ in keeping patients safe

Requires improvement: A Lincoln GP surgery has been told to improve the way it keeps patients safe in a critical report.
The Newark Road Surgery. Photo: Google Street View

A Lincoln GP surgery has been told to improve the way it keeps patients safe in a critical report by a regulator of health and care services in England.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited the Newark Road Surgery run by doctors Baljinder Noorpuri and Jane Marshall on January 6.

The practice, which provides services to around 7,250 patients in North Hykeham and the surrounding areas was rated overall as ‘requires improvement’ in a report published on February 18.

The report revealed that patients were at risk of harm because systems and processes were either not in place or not well implemented in a way to keep them safe.

Inspectors said: “Although risks to patients who used services were assessed, the systems and processes to address these risks were not implemented well enough to ensure patients were kept safe, for example, fire safety and legionella.

The practice requires improvement for providing effective services, with data showing that patient outcomes were low for the locality.

The report said: “For example, performance for diabetes related indicators was 82.6% which was 8.1% below the CCG average and 6.6% below the national average.

“The performance for patients with hypertension was 92.3% which was 5.7% below the CCG average and 5.5% below the national average.

“The dementia diagnosis rate was 92.3% which was 2.3% below the CCG average and 2.2% below the national average.

The report noted that most staff had not had an appraisal since 2014 either.

Leadership of the practice was also rated as ‘requires improvement’, with the surgery described as not having “a clear or consistent system in place” for reporting, recording and monitoring significant events and incidents.

Inspectors added: “There was not a structured or robust approach for dealing with safeguarding and the practice had not proactively sought feedback from patients.”

The managers received better feedback for their leadership structure and having an active patient participation group.

Despite this, the surgery was praised for its caring services and how it responded to the needs of patients.

Rebecca Neno, deputy chief nurse at Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Newark Road Surgery has been rated as requiring improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), following a recent visit.

“In its report, the CQC highlights a number of areas for improvement and we are confident that the surgery will make these improvements and continue providing good care for patients.

“We note that the practice was rated good in the provision of caring and responsive services.

“The practice has our full support.”