AN inspection at Burnham Surgery found that patient consultations and medicine reviews were not always carried out in line with guidance.

CQC (Care Quality Commission) inspectors carried out the focussed inspection on 4 January after concerns were raised about the practice in Foundry Lane, Burnham-on-Crouch.

In a report published last week (on 28 April), the inspectors found:

-On reviewing a random sample of clinical records, patient consultations had not always been undertaken in line with recommended guidance.

-Medicines reviews were not always completed in line with recognised guidance. On reviewing a random sample of patient records, inspectors found that some patients had not received the appropriate monitoring before medicines were prescribed.

The areas identified where improvements were needed include:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
• Improve the coding and recall of patients with a potential diabetes diagnosis, to ensure they receive the appropriate care and treatment.
• Ensure medicines reviews are undertaken in a timely manner.

In the report, inspectors add: "As a result of our findings, we asked the practice to take immediate action to ensure patients were safe. We followed this up with the practice and a clinical advisor reviewed the improvements made.

We were assured that patients were safe. We will review their systems the next time we inspect, to ensure the new processes are embedded into daily practice."

Burnham Surgery must now send CQC a report that says what action will be taken to address the issues identified.

The surgery's CQC rating remains at 'Good' as per the last full inspection on 6 September, 2019, as inspectors did not carry out a full inspection this time.

Dan Doherty, Alliance Director – Mid Essex for the Mid and South Essex Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) said: "We welcome the CQC's new way of carrying out inspections to support our member practices in improving the quality of health services for all our residents. Burnham Surgery has reviewed patients' care and changed some of its systems since receiving the inspection results."