Out-of-hours Leicester GP services put in special measures after inspection

Inspectors found the service at the out-of-hours General Practice was inadequate Credit: ITV News Central

An out-of-hours General Practice in Leicester has been placed in special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC found the quality of care at Leicester City, Leicestershire and Rutland Out-of-Hours in Smith Way, Enderby, Leicester, to be 'Inadequate' following an inspection carried out in March 2015.

The out-of-hours service provides care to patients who require urgent medical care from GPs and nurses outside of normal GP hours.

Inspectors found the service was inadequate for providing safe, effective and responsive services and being well led. They also found it required improvement for providing caring services.

The report highlights a number of areas in which the Practice was performing inadequately:

  • Patients at risk of harm because systems not in place to keep them safe.

  • Essential equipment found to out of date in some areas or not available.

  • Emergency patients waiting too long to be seen. Despite being aware of problems, managers had not looked at why it was happening.

  • Medication management was poor - medicines were found to be out of date.

CQC is working closely with NHS England and the three Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups to support the service, while it addresses the issues identified by the inspection.

Janet Williamson, Deputy Chief Inspector of General Practice and Dentistry in CQC’s Central region, said: