AN UNDER-fire surgery has been given six months to keep improving or it could face closure.

Beggarwood surgery, in Broadmere Road was placed into special measures in June 2017 after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Now, after another visit from the health watchdog on November 14, 2017, chief inspector at the CQC Professor Steve Field has found that the service is still not well led by Cedar Medical Limited.

Inspectors noted improvements in the standard of care as well as patients’ safety and needs being looked after. The surgery has now been rated as “requires improvement” after being rated “inadequate” in February. This includes a ‘good’ rating in the “caring” category.

But the report found that “health reviews were not always being carried out at appropriate intervals” and “complaints were not being dealt with in a timely fashion”.

The report notes: “Therefore 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 service will be kept under review and, if needed, could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to vary the provider’s registration to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.”

Outlining the progress made so far, the report noted the practice had recently commenced routine reviews of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided; staff treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect; the practice had employed a clinical lead GP to improve local clinical oversight; there was an increasing availability of both urgent and routine appointments; and the practice had a vision of improvement, although there was not yet a sustained track record for delivering that vision.

The report adds: “Staff and the interim leadership team were aware of their roles and responsibilities to support governance and management.

“Systems and processes which had been reviewed since our previous inspection had not been in place for a sufficient period of time to demonstrate fully that they were embedded in everyday practice.

“There were processes in place for managing risks, issues and performance, although these were not always evidenced to be acted upon in a timely or appropriate manner.”

The surgery, which serves approximately 7,400 patients, has had issues since February 2017, with many members of staff resigning.

The IMH Group, which runs Cedar Medical Limited, was approached for comment.