Damning Report for Shepherd's Bush GP Practice
Uxbridge Road medical centre face closure unless improvements are made
Picture: Google Streetview
A Shepherd’s Bush GP practice has been threatened with potential closure if it does not urgently improve on a catalogue of failings.
Inspectors from health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), rated The Medical Centre in Uxbridge Road ‘inadequate’.
A report published on October 4 listed problems with children not receiving immunisations and women not getting smear tests.
Chief inspector, Dr Rosie Benneyworth, said too few patients received breast screenings, while the percentage of patients who were screened for bowel cancer was about half the national average. She said the practice “did not have systems” for arranging follow-up appointments.
Practice manager Dr Rahul Kukar, who has 6,600 registered patients, said there were “oversights” in the CQC report. But added: “[We] have set a plan in action to ensure all the boxes are ticked, for the CQC to restore our positive rating at their next inspection.”
The CQC will reinspect the surgery in January.
It warned: “If insufficient improvements have been made… we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.”
Some of the issues stemmed from the practice nurse being available one day per week, Dr Benneyworth suggested.
She wrote: “The practice nurse we spoke with told us they did not follow-up on any children who did not attend for immunisations, as they only worked at the practice one day per week.”
And some women were not reminded of cervical smear tests. “Cervical screening achievement score was 29 per cent in 2017/18,” Dr Benneyworth wrote.
This was significantly below the national average of 72 per cent, and was eight per cent lower than what the practice achieved in 2016.
Dr Kukar disagreed with the CQC’s findings. He said children’s immunisations were followed up by his administrative team, who “take appropriate action” if appointments are missed.
And he said rates for cervical screenings were “low throughout the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham” compared to the rest of the country, “for area-specific demographic reasons”.
On bowel screenings, he said: “Project officers attend the practice and actively call patients to make them aware of the importance of bowel screening, and encourage action.”
The report highlighted some positive aspects at the practice.
“Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care,” Dr Benneyworth said.
“The provider prioritised home visits and telephone consultations for older people and pro-actively visited housebound patients as part of its care planning and annual immunisation programme.”
Owen Sheppard - Local Democracy Reporter
October 11, 2019