WIDBROOK Medical Practice has been placed into special measures following a damning Care Quality Commission report that said the services they provide are inadequate.

The Trowbridge GP surgery had the report published this week following the inspection in December last year and in areas of safety, responsiveness and leadership, the Wingfield Road surgery was deemed not to be up to scratch.

In a letter by the chief inspector of general practice, Professor Steve Field said he was placing Widbrook Medical Practice into special measures to ensure that improvements are made at the earliest possible opportunity for the benefit of patients.

He added in his letter: “Special measures will give people who use the practice the reassurance that the care they get should improve.”

Approximately 6,000 patients are registered with the practice which has a total of three GPs. Earlier this year, The GP Patient Survey revealed that in terms of getting through to the surgery on the phone, Widbrook received a rating of 29 per cent, way below the national average of 70 per cent. It also came out as bottom third in the county.

In the CQC report, the effectiveness of the services required improvement while the team’s responsiveness and leadership were called into question and told they must improve.

The report added: “We saw no evidence that the practice reviewed the needs of its local population. This means they could not be sure the services they offered met the needs of their patients.

“Patients said it was difficult to make an appointment over the phone. The telephone system did not give patients advice on what to do in an emergency.

“The arrangements for identifying, recording and managing risks and issues, and implementing mitigating actions, were not adequately robust. For example, there was no risk assessment on the security of patients’ files and there was no policy or procedure for significant events.”

However, the practice was praised for the care provided as “patients said they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment”.

In a statement issued by Widbrook Medical Practice, they said: “We know that this will be concerning for our patients and wish to reassure you that the practice was rated ‘good’ for the care we give to patients.

“An action plan to address the findings of the CQC inspection about the systems and processes at the medical centre is being put in place. We recognise that some processes at the surgery need to be reviewed and improved and we have already begun to take action.”