West Bromwich GP surgery rated 'inadequate' after inspection
A GP surgery with more than 4,000 patients has been rated inadequate by a health watchdog.
Hill Top Surgery in West Bromwich has been warned that it could be placed into special measures by if it does not improve its services.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors found that it did not have a 'structured and effective recall system' for patients health reviews, with performance for depression related indicators at 0 per cent. The local average is 91 per cent.
The report stated: "The 0 per cent achievement meant patients aged 18 or over with a new diagnosis of depression in the preceding year had not been reviewed within 10 to 56 days after the date of diagnosis.
"Performance for mental health related indicators was 53 per cent which was below the CCG average of 92 per cent and the national average of 93 per cent."
In the management, monitoring and improving outcomes section, cancer care was also a concern.
It added: "Other sources of evidence we reviewed indicated that care provided for patients with cancer required improvement. For example, we reviewed three records relating to patients with a diagnosis of cancer and found they had not received a regular review."
The surgery was rated as inadequate in two out of five categories inspected, requiring improvement in the other two and good in one.
The CQC said there were 'no effective and planned audit programme in place to continuously drive improvements'.
"Systems were not always operated effectively to ensure that risks were identified, assessed and monitored. In addition, risks were not always dealt with appropriately or in a timely manner," the report added.
"We found the practice did not always have adequate arrangements in place to enable them to respond to medical emergencies."
However, praise was received for the surgery in way of staff members being 'courteous and helpful' to patients and treating them with 'dignity and respect'.
A statement from Hill Top Surgery said: "We are taking the recommendations in the CQC report very seriously and are working with Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG to make improvements to some of our processes and procedures in order to ensure that we continue to offer high quality care to our patients."
