Oak Road Surgery, also known as Dr Rana Chowdhury practice, in Oak Road has been deemed ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the second time this year.
Inspections were carried out in March and April following the practice being put into special measures in January.
In the most recent findings, the practice was rated ‘inadequate’ in the ‘safe’ and ‘well-led’ categories.
It scored ‘requires improvement’ in the ‘effective’ category and scored ‘good’ in the ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ assessment areas.
The findings were published on July 3 and CQC inspectors found the leadership of the practice unable to demonstrate their “capability to deliver consistently high-quality care and treatment”.
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The public report said: “Whilst the practice had responded to the previous assessment and put in place an action plan, the leaders had not fully implemented or embedded the systems for significant events, safeguarding, referrals, safe staffing, storage of prescriptions, risk management, medicines optimisation and storage.”
Inspectors found two-week wait referrals contained “limited information to assist clinicians in secondary care (hospital)”.
According to the report, some referrals were not even sent to the appropriate secondary care departments.
It was also found that the practice did not have a system in place to review routine referrals to check whether patients’ conditions had deteriorated or improved.
This meant that patients might not have their referrals addressed in an appropriate timescale or might not be referred to the most appropriate clinician for their individual health condition, CQC said.
The report added that the practice “did not have a safe system in place for the storage of prescriptions”.
In the previous inspection, CQC noted that patient records were not detailed enough and whilst “some improvements” have been made since then, it said the quality of the information recorded continues to require improvements.
Inspectors also found that safeguarding systems were only partly embedded, meaning children and adults with safeguarding needs “might not get the support needed and experience harm”.
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The Recorder contacted the surgery for comment and was referred to NHS North East London (NHS NEL).
A spokesperson said: “Since Oak Road Surgery’s initial CQC inspection last year, we’ve been providing extensive support to the practice and engaging expert input where necessary.
“While the practice has made notable progress in a number of areas where it was previously underperforming, the latest CQC report clearly underlines that further significant improvements are required.
“We will continue to support Dr Chowdhury and his team to address the issues raised and make the additional improvements necessary.
“However, it remains the practice’s responsibility to assure us, as local commissioner, that it can deliver its contract safely and appropriately.
“Our priority is ensuring all patients at Oak Road Surgery have ongoing access to safe, high quality services that meet the high standards they rightly expect.”
CQC confirmed the practice will remain in special measures.
Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months.
If improvement is not seen and the service ranks as ‘inadequate’ in any category or overall, CQC said: “We will take action in line with our enforcement procedure to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.”
