An East London private GP surgery has been suspended by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for exposing patients to risk of avoidable harm.
During the CQC’s regular inspection of the Northway Clinic in Canning Town in April, inspectors raised concerns about the surgery’s “clear failures” to ensure patient safety.
Due to the “widespread and significant” risks to people that inspectors uncovered, the CQC suspended the service – meaning the surgery cannot provide regulated care or treatment to anyone until the regulator is assured the service can ensure patient safety.
What inspectors found
Inspectors found the surgery had no effective systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
Safeguarding issues – including involving children – were delayed for weeks before referral, and staff lacked training to spot and respond to signs of abuse.
Inspectors highlighted that patients’ clinical needs, assessments, care and prescribing were not always in line with evidence-based guidance – exposing some patients to risk of harm and that the service did not identify or learn from significant incidents.
They also found that the appropriateness of clinical care and treatment was not reviewed effectively and that while staff felt supported by management, leadership and governance arrangements were ineffective.
Andy Ford, head of primary medical services inspection at the CQC, said: “People using regulated health and social care services have the right to expect safe and effective care and treatment. When we find services aren’t providing this, we take action to protect people from the risk of avoidable harm.
“The Northway Clinic wasn’t meeting patients’ clinical needs or ensuring they were safeguarded from abuse.
“Behind these issues was insufficient oversight from leaders to ensure care and treatment provided to people were safe and effective.
“Due to these issues, we suspended the Northway Clinic’s registration for six months. It must ensure it has the right processes in place to provide good care and protect people from the risk of avoidable harm before we will consider allowing it to provide care and treatment to people again.”
New clinical lead appointed and external review
Following the inspection, the provider of the service told CQC it had appointed a new clinical lead and that it was undertaking an external review of all patients where inspectors highlighted concerns.
The clinic’s leaders also advised they were forming a medical advisory committee, following up on all safeguarding cases and were working on an action plan.
A spokesperson for Northway Clinic, said that while it was disappointed with the findings of the CQC report, it was working closely with its regulatory agencies to make the improvements necessary at the service.
“We as a company remain committed to providing a good standard of care to our patients and have appointed a care consultancy to assist us with making the necessary improvements at the clinic,” the spokesperson added.