Romford Surgery Remains ‘Inadequate’ After Failure To Improve Patient Safety.

Local democracy reporter Sebastian Mann writes:

A GP practice in Romford has been branded ‘inadequate’ for the second time after failing to improve on patient safety.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Dr Rana Chowdhury at Oak Lodge in late March and early April.

They found staff were not always properly reporting incidents, storing medicine safely, or following up when children missed appointments or attended A&E.

The practice, which looks after more than 4,700 patients, was told to improve after being graded inadequate for similar reasons in January. It was formally placed in special measures, a form of intervention for NHS services or trusts that are falling behind.

A spokesperson for NHS North East London (NEL), the integrated care board which oversees the practice, said it had made “notable progress” despite its overall poor performance.

Following the March inspection, the practice’s rating for safety remained inadequate – the lowest possible rating.

The quality of its leadership and management was dropped from ‘good’ to inadequate, while its effectiveness as a practice was raised from inadequate to ‘requires improvement’.

A single ‘inadequate’ rating in any category is enough for an entire surgery to be branded inadequate overall.

During the initial inspection last August, the first in seven years, inspectors found patient records were not always sufficiently filled out, which may have impacted treatments.

They said they also “did not find assurances that medicines were being consistently prescribed safely”.

Though the practice had since introduced a new system to learn from safety incidents, some staff were still not sure which incidents to report.

Staff also did not always include enough detail when referring patients to other services, which the CQC says might lead to a lack of information needed for their care.

The latest inspection also revealed that management had not addressed certain gaps in the training records and recruitment details for some staff providing care.

The NHS NEL 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.”

Despite the failings, more than 90% of respondents in the National GP Patient Survey 2024 said they had a fairly or very good experience with the practice.

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