GP surgery in Derbyshire threatened with closure due to “inadequate” care

As reported by the BBC News, The Village Surgery in South Normanton has received criticism from the government health watchdog

Following an inspection earlier this year, special measures were put into the surgery.

Improvements have since been made but the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) believe not enough. Inspectors visited the service in April and ranked the care and leadership to be “inadequate”.

The watchdog’s report said the effectiveness of the practice needed improvement but the care and responsiveness was good.

If the surgery was not to close, the CQC has warned it needs to see improvements in:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning services
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The report concluded: “We are taking action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service.

“This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.”

The report did also include that the surgery staff “treated patients with kindness, respect and compassion”.

A spokesperson for the surgery commented: “The partners and staff at The Village Surgery welcome the feedback from the Care Quality Commission about how we can continue to improve the way we deliver care to our patients.

“The team has put in a significant amount of work over the past months to introduce more robust and effective processes, but we also recognise that challenges remain.

“We can assure patients that their safety is of paramount importance to us and that we will continue to build upon the improvements introduced since the previous inspection.”