DESPITE progress being made, a doctor’s surgery has once again been told by inspectors it must improve.

The Bermuda and Marlowe Practice, in Shakespeare Road, Popley, had been rated as ‘requires improvement' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after an inspection in April 2017 and has now been given the rating again after a follow-up inspection on November 16, 2017.

After the latest inspection, the practice, which has an estimated 13,400 patients, was labelled as ‘good’ in the effectiveness, responsiveness, and the level of care categories but still needs to improve in being well-led and with safety.

Part of the CQC report read: “Not all patient group directions were countersigned by an authorised person; not all single use equipment available was in date and cytotoxic drugs were not disposed of in the correct containers.

“The practice’s cleaning schedule checklist was not completed which meant the practice could not evidence that the cleaning schedules had been completed. There was an improved oversight of the governance for training to ensure all staff had training at the right time.”

However, the report did praise staff for improvements made to training and there was particular mention made of the recently launched self-care internet page and mobile application. Overall, the report noted many of the improvements that the practice had made.

In a statement, the practice said: “The CQC found that good progress had been made in many areas since their last inspection, but still rated the Practice as “requires improvement”. The partners recognise that achieving high quality healthcare for their patients requires continuous improvement in all our key processes, while maintaining the caring culture, effectiveness and responsiveness which were rated as good.

“As a result of this CQC assessment, the partners are now working with First Practice Management to secure a new first class practice manager to drive through the necessary changes and regain a higher CQC rating in the next inspection.”

“This assessment has taken place against a backdrop of a care budget for the practice which is reducing every year by tens of thousands of pounds, a national shortage of GPs, while demand for care continues to increase inexorably.”