Inspectors tell GP practice it must improve

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has put Royal Primary Care, which serves 21,500 people in Chesterfield and North Derbyshire, into special measures after rating it inadequate.

In one of the first interventions of its kind in England two years ago, local hospital chiefs were drafted in to take over services at the practice amid a crisis in recruitment of GPs.

But in a new report, inspectors said there were continuing problems accessing appointments at three surgeries run at Inkersall, Staveley and Grangewood, giving officials six months to make improvements.

On the day of their inspection in May, inspectors found a “long queue of patients were standing at reception extending beyond the entrance doors”.

Local care homes also told inspectors of problems getting through by telephone, with staff forced to go to the practice in person to request urgent visits for residents.

One home had switched to another practice to get a better service.

Inspectors said they uncovered “a number of serious concerns” including the timely management of test results, while several GPs had a “significant backlog” of correspondence about patients. They said Royal Primary Care had inherited significant problems when it took over Holywell Medical Group, initially as an “emergency caretaker” before a shake-up which led to the closure of two surgeries.

Improvements were being made but GP recruitment remained a problem and despite use of locum doctors there were times when there was no medical cover at the Inkersall site.

A survey of patients in July last year, found just a quarter could get through easily by telephone, compared to a national average of 73 per cent.

An internal practice survey in December found 53 per cent of patients said their experience of making an appointment was poor or very poor.

Work to reduce telephone waiting times had been unsuccessful and there were plans to purchase a new system.

In a message to patients, Simon Morritt, chief executive of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS trust, accepted “one of the biggest frustrations” they faced was accessing one of 2,000 weekly appointments at the three surgeries.

“I appreciate how exasperating it must be when you struggle to get in touch and I’m sorry that some of our patients occasionally resort to travelling to a surgery to queue to make an appointment. That’s not the patient experience we want to provide and we will make sure it improves,” he said.

“I assure you that we will transform Royal Primary Care services and we will make sure we have safe, high-quality services that provide an exceptional patient experience.”

A trust spokesman added: “Whilst we’re very disappointed with the rating, we welcome the feedback received by the CQC who acknowledge within the report that there is a lot of work taking place across the entire team to address some of the issues identified, much of which is already starting to make an impact.

“A follow-up inspection will take place in six months’ time and we’re confident that these processes will be sufficiently embedded to show significant improvements in the areas highlighted.”