A Brighton doctors’ surgery “requires improvement”, according to the government’s official health watchdog in an inspection report.
The Haven Practice, in Beaconsfield Villas, Brighton, was given the rating – the second-lowest out of four grades – by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The watchdog said: “Staff did not always have the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment to patients.
“Reception staff had not received training and were not aware of actions to take if they encountered a deteriorating or acutely unwell patient.”
But the CQC also said: “Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
“Patients were able to access care and treatment from the practice within an acceptable timescale for their needs.
“Results from the national GP patient survey showed that patients’ satisfaction with how they could access care and treatment was higher than local and national averages.”
Steve Field, the CQC’s chief inspector of general practice, said that the surgery “must make improvements” by ensuring “care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients”.
The report said: “Care and treatment was not always provided in a safe way. The service provider was not doing all that was reasonably practicable to mitigate any such risks.
“In particular, the practice was unable to demonstrate they were equipped to deal with a medical emergency.
“There was limited assessment of the risk of, and preventing, detecting and controlling the spread of, infections, including those that are healthcare associated.
“In particular, there was no system in place to ensure clinical dressings were safe to use and the use-by date of some dressings had expired.”
Professor Field also said that the surgery “should make improvements” in providing “awareness training for reception staff on the ‘red flag’ sepsis symptoms that might be reported by patients and how to respond”.
The CQC said: “Systems and processes … to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services being provided were not established and operated effectively.
“In particular, the practice did not keep records of actions taken in response to receipt of national patient safety alerts (and) the practice had not completed actions from the most recent infection prevention and control audit.”
The Haven Practice, run by Dr Larissa Tate, was rated as “good” – the second best out of four grades – for providing effective, caring and responsive services.
But it was rated as “requires improvement” for providing safe and well-led services.
About 2,600 patients are registered at the surgery, with a higher than average number of them being aged 25 to 49 years old. Fewer than average are classed as deprived or over 65.
The inspection was carried out in December and the report was published last week.
