Hampton Wick Surgery placed in special measures

Hampton Wick Surgery (HWS) was inspected by the Care Quality Commission* (CQC) in May 2022 and a report of findings published on 27th June 2022.

Following an overall performace rating of inadequate and poor individual ratings, the practice was put into special measures by the CQC. The practice has been given six months to significantly improve the ratings or risk being closed.**

*The CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England (www.cqc.org.uk).
**Read the CQC inspection summary here.

The HWA contacted the practice to find out what steps are being taken to improve the situation along with likely timescales.

We are grateful to Dr Kate Moore (partner at HWS) for providing the response below.

We were of course disappointed by the results of the unannounced CQC inspection which came at a difficult time for us, and other GP practices, as a result of Covid.

We are working hard to address the issues raised by the CQC and to significantly improve the scores. It has been and continues to be an extremely challenging time throughout the NHS for all services. It is likely to be very challenging this winter due to the need to deliver flu, covid and polio vaccinations in addition to our usual services.

We want to reassure patients and local people that we are continuing to provide safe and high quality services.

What are the steps that are being taken to get the practice out of “special measures”?

The practice has employed a part time experienced member of staff . She previously worked for CQC and so is fully aware of compliance and governance requirements. She is supporting current staff with implementing a number of improvements and training so that these improvements can be embedded within the practice. The practice has just gone out to advert for a permanent audit and compliance manager to support the practice manager in delivery.

We have instituted a new audit framework to monitor areas around patient safety and prescribing.

We have recruited a prescription technician who is dealing with all prescriptions . He is supported by 2 clinical pharmacists who work within the practice.

One of the GP partners has protected time of half a day per week to support the above functions

Reception and admin posts are now fully staffed.

We have improved our meeting and training structures as these had lapsed during covid.

We have instituted a new complaints log and how we manage complaints and feedback.

Getting through on the phone is frequently raised by patients. We instituted a new phone system and have the ability to monitor and audit phone waiting times. Our phone waiting times and abandoned calls has reduced significantly in the last 3 months and we are working hard to maintain this

What is the likely timeframe for the improvements?

We have been meeting monthly with the CQC inspector and ad hoc when we have queries. The CQC have indicated that they will be back to inspect us sometime in November . We are optimistic that our improvements will be noted and reflected in the report. Obviously we will need to maintain the improvements and show the CQC that these are realistic and sustainable.

We will update this story when we hear the results of the next inspection expected to take place next month (November 2022).

The HWA wishes our local practice all the very best with these improvement initiatives.