HEALTH service regulators have told Minehead’s only GP surgery it needs to improve in a number of key areas for its 12,500 patients.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection last November of Minehead Medical Centre, in Irnham Road, but has only recently published its findings.

The CQC rated the practice, run by Harley House Surgery, overall as ‘requires improvement’ and found it was ‘good’ in only two out of three areas.

It was the first inspection since the merger in 2021 of the then-two GP practices in the town. Previously, the CQC gave the surgery an overall rating of ‘good’ in 2015 and also said each of the five key areas were ‘good’.

The more recent inspection was largely carried out remotely and via video conferencing to reduce the amount of time the inspectors spent on site.

The medical centre has a team of five GPs and an acute care team of primary care practitioners and a nursing team of four practice nurses, three healthcare assistants, and a phlebotomist to take blood samples.

The inspectors found safeguarding processes were not established or operated effectively, medicine reviews did not always contain necessary information, safety alerts were not always actioned appropriately, processes to ensure staff had received or were up to date with training were not embedded, staff did not always have access to appropriate support or clinical supervision, overall governance arrangements were not always effective, and the practice lacked clear and effective processes for managing risks, issues, and performance.

They said the practice had to ensure patients were protected from abuse and improper treatment and it must establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

Enough suitably qualified, competent, skilled, and experienced staff had to be deployed to meet the fundamental standards of care and treatment and they needed to receive the appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision, and appraisal necessary to enable them to carry out their duties.

The CQC said there were not any breaches of regulations, but the practice should take action to improve the uptake of child immunisations and cervical screening, embed effective monitoring of blank prescriptions, and ensure fire alarm and legionella testing was conducted consistently.

Medical centre practice manager Janet Hewlett was asked by the Free Press for any comments on the CQC report but had not responded at the time of publication.