Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Little Lever Health Centre-2 in Little Lever, Bolton as inadequate again, and it remains in special measures, following an inspection in February and March.
Little Lever Health Centre-2, run by Dr Thiruppathy Subramanian, provides services to around 3000 people.
The inspection was carried out to follow up on three warning notices CQC issued to the service at its inspection last November, due to concerns around safe care and treatment, making sure fit and proper people are employed and good governance.
This inspection found these issues hadn’t been fixed. The service’s overall rating and the ratings for safe, well-led and effective have been rated as inadequate again. Responsive is still rated requires improvement, and caring wasn’t inspected so retains its previous rating of requires improvement.
The service remains in special measures which means it will be kept under close review by CQC to keep people safe and it will be monitored to check sufficient improvements have been made. CQC has also begun the process of taking regulatory action to address the concerns which Little Lever Health Centre-2 has the right to appeal.
Alison Chilton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north west, said:
“When we returned to Little Lever Health Centre-2, we were disappointed to find that the practice still wasn’t providing safe or effective care. Improvements weren’t as rapid or widespread as they should have been despite our previous inspection report identifying the specific areas where these were needed.
“People were still experiencing delays in waiting to see their GP once they arrived at the practice. At our previous inspection some people were waiting over an hour, and this time we saw nine people waiting over 45 minutes to be seen.
“Despite some improvements being made with how people’s medicines are monitored, we continued to see people being placed at risk of harm. For example, someone with asthma had been prescribed steroids with no check-ups being carried out despite national guidance saying this must be done within 48 hours.
“Staff had previously told us they didn’t feel supported and had raised issues that weren’t dealt with. During this inspection, we hardly received any feedback from staff as they said the lead GP had told them not to speak to us which indicates a closed culture.
“Our experience tells us that when a service isn’t well-led they are less likely to be able to provide good care which is what we found here.
“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid improvements and we will continue to monitor the service closely to keep people safe during this time. We have also begun the process of taking regulatory action which Little Lever Health Centre-2 has the right to appeal.”
