CQC inspectors spot safe care breach at GP surgery in Walsall
A GP surgery in Walsall has breached safety and treatment regulations resulting in it again being rated as requiring improvements.
The health watchdog the Care Quality Commission said Walsall Wood Health Centre, in Lichfield Road, in Walsall Wood, was in breach of legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment in relation to protecting people from abuse and avoidable harm. The service which is run by Dr Puneet Dubb scored 50 out of 100 marks for this area of its operations.
The report stated: "Nine significant events had been recorded in the last 12 months. A significant event log was shared with us during our site visit. However, it was difficult to cross reference the log with the records kept on file as they were not easily identifiable and some of the significant event records were missing from the file. This was discussed with leaders, who were later able to produce the missing records and numbered the significant events to help with identification.
"From examining three records, we found that they were not always managed effectively. For example, the forms had not always been signed and dated and lacked detail including learning and quality improvement. We found that one of the events had not been discussed during the practice’s monthly meeting and had not been shared with the wider team for learning to help prevent it happening again."
At the previous inspection in June 2023 inspectors rated the centre as requiring improvement overall, it was good for providing safe, effective and caring services and was requiring improvement for responsive and well-led services.
The latest report stated: "This announced comprehensive inspection was carried out to follow-up on the breach identified at our last inspection in relation to good governance. The practice had addressed the requirements in the previous breach and staff had now received the required level of safeguarding training and staffing levels had improved. However, at this inspection we found issues resulting in breaches of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance. The provider will be required to provide us with an action plan in response to the concerns found at this inspection.
"The practice is now rated requires improvement overall, requires improvement for providing safe and well led services and rated good for providing effective, caring and responsive services."
The report stated that there were space constraints due to the service operating from a converted leased semi. It stated while risk assessments for legionella, electrical installation, fire alarm and fire safety measures had been carried out, the practice was not working in line with its health and safety policy in "pro-actively identifying slip and trip risks in the workplace and eliminating these risks where possible".
"We found not all environment risks had been identified or actioned, for example trip hazards in the staff offices due to the worn and uneven carpets. Areas of the practice we observed looked tired and the window in one of the staff offices could not be opened as it was broken."
The surgery has been approached for comment.
