DAMNING details have been published of why a Minehead GP practice’s licence was suspended, leaving the town without any doctor’s surgery for a day while emergency measures were put in place.

Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) served a Section 31 enforcement notice on Minehead Medical Centre in January which saw the surgery immediately close.

It was the culmination of a long-running issue with CQC inspectors repeatedly giving a poor rating to Minehead Medical Ltd, a company set up two years ago and run by Dr Ed Ford and practice manager Janet Hewlett.

NHS Somerset, which had been aware of the situation and working on back-up plans for some time, was able to ensure a new GP service was restored the following day by Leeds-based company One Medical Group.

Now, the CQC has published its inspection report containing a catalogue of criticisms which led to the practice closure.

The CQC inspectors said the quality of services at the Irnham Road surgery had deteriorated to the point last December where they rated it ‘inadequate’ for its provision of the following:

It also gave a ‘requires improvement’ rating for providing caring services.

A CQC spokesperson said the December inspection had been to follow-up on breaches of regulations which had been identified in earlier visits.

The inspectors found the surgery did not have effective systems for the appropriate and safe use of medicines, and could not show any systematic process to identify and recall patients to review long-term conditions.

There was also a large backlog of documents requiring action where there was no triage process to prioritise cases, and a large backlog of patient notes which required summarising and were not being appropriately monitored.

The spokesperson said: “The practice was unable to demonstrate that all staff had the skills, knowledge, and experience to carry out their roles.

“Leaders could not demonstrate they had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care.

“The overall governance arrangements were ineffective.

“Services did not always meet patients’ needs.”

A ‘Letter of Intent’ was then served, requesting information which would mitigate the risks but the surgery was unable to provide enough assurance and the CQC ‘urgently suspended’ the service.

The spokesperson said patient feedback showed people were not always satisfied with the GP practice appointment times and the ability to reach the surgery by telephone.

They said: “We observed negative interactions between practice staff and patients as well as medical professionals from other local services.

“Feedback from external stakeholders identified concerns with the practice inappropriately directing patients to use other local services without appropriate clinical oversight.

“The practice was unable to give assurance medicines were prescribed in line with practice policy and best practice guidance. 

“There were not enough staff to provide necessary appointments to patients.

“There was no oversight of patients directed to use other services once appointment capacity had been reached.

“The practice was unable to demonstrate acutely unwell patients would be identified and managed appropriately.”