Rugeley health centre with 11,000 patients is told to improve

The Hillsprings Health and Wellbeing Centre, based at Lovett Court, Rugeley, was given an overall rating of 'requires improvement' by CQC inspectors who visited the premises in March.

Inspectors gave the practice an 'inadequate' rating for safety and 'requires improvement' for effectiveness, care, responsiveness and leadership.

Some of the key concerns raised include the practice not properly reviewing significant safety events in order to learn from them and not properly assessing risks to patients.

Communication issues were also a problem, with patients telling inspectors that the biggest challenged they faced in relation to the practice was getting through to them on the phone, while the practice was also inconsistent with its storage of vaccines.

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The CQC report reads: "We identified that significant events relating to medicine changes from hospital letters had been recorded, although we saw no evidence of changes to processes based on a review of these.

"We spoke with two members of clinical staff about medicine alerts.

"One member of staff was not aware of how the safety alerts and updates were disseminated to staff or what action was required.

"The other member of staff could not remember what action had been taken in response to specific alerts.

"The lack of formalised system could lead to an increased risk of an alert not being investigated and changes being made.

"We looked at the way the practice stored vaccines (not in the dispensary) and found that the necessary checks had been inconsistently applied."

The practice forms part of the Horse Fair Practice Group, which also runs Horse Fair Practice in Sandy Lane Health Centre and the Armitage Surgery in Rugeley.

Dr Mukesh Singh of the Horse Fair Practice Group said: "Following a routine inspection by the CQC the report made positive comments on patient care and patients being treated with compassion, dignity and respect.

"However, overall the practice was rated as requires improvement.

"We would like to reassure our patients that we are working very hard to meet the CQC's recommendations within the six-month period we have to address the issues they have raised.

"We are pleased that the CQC's report also acknowledges the consistently positive feedback we receive about the care and treatment we provide - all of the patients spoken to as part of the inspection said that they valued the personal care and support they received from the practice.

"Our Patient Participation Group is aware of the report and is very supportive of our work."