21 December 2022
During a routine inspection
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Garway Medical Centre on 20-21 December 2022 and 10 January 2023. Overall, the practice is rated as requires improvement.
Safe - requires improvement
Effective – requires improvement
Caring - good
Responsive - good
Well-led - requires improvement
Following our previous inspection on 4 September 2018, the practice was rated good overall and for all key questions.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Dr Jedth Phornnarit on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
We carried out this inspection to follow up concerns reported to us about the way the practice was managed and a lack of clinical leadership. We carried out a comprehensive inspection at short notice and covered the five key questions in their entirety.
How we carried out the inspection
This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This included:
- Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
- Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system (this was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements).
- Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
- Requesting evidence from the provider.
- A short site visit.
Our findings
We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:
- what we found when we inspected
- information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and
- information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.
We found that:
- The practice had effective systems in place to manage risks in relation to safeguarding, infection control, recruitment and environmental risks.
- However, the practice did not routinely check that agency staff had completed required training before working at the practice.
- Medicines reviews were of variable quality.
- The practice was not always implementing safety alerts in line with national guidelines.
- There were systems in place to learn from incidents.
- Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
- However, published practice performance in relation to childhood immunisations and cervical screening coverage rates was below expected targets. This was also noted at the practice’s previous inspection.
- Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
- Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
- The practice was not holding regular staff meetings and did not have alternative systems in place to spot issues at an early stage.
- There were gaps and anomalies in the way the practice implemented coding on the clinical system, so for example, it could not accurately count the number of patients who were carers.
- Clinical oversight of record keeping, for example in relation to medicines reviews needed improvement.
- The practice had worked hard to develop a positive working culture; address key challenges and develop the leadership team.
We found a breach of regulations. The provider must:
- Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA
Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services