Mid Sussex GP practice put into special measures after CQC rates it ‘inadequate’

The CQC announced on Wednesday, September 27, that Modality Mid Sussex at Bowers Place, Crawley Down, received the rating following an inspection in May and June.

The CQC said the practice was rated ‘inadequate’ overall and for the categories of being safe, responsive, and well-led. They said its rating for being effective is ‘requires improvement’ while caring is ‘good’.

Neil Cox, CQC deputy director of operations in the South, said: “We were disappointed to find that the practice didn’t have enough capacity to meet people’s demand for appointments. On-the-day appointments were often filled by mid-morning and reception staff were then asked to redirect people to local accident and emergency departments, community pharmacies and the local walk-in minor injuries unit or contact NHS111. The lack of access to appointments also impacted the care of people using the services. The practice did try to manage this risk by asking staff to work extra hours and employing locum GPs, but the unmanageable additional workload left staff morale low.”

He said: “National guidelines weren’t always being followed in response to blood test results, which meant their care wasn’t always being monitored properly. It was very concerning that the practices didn’t seem to have a good grip on managing medications.”

He added: “We’ve used our enforcement powers and issued two warning notices, which highlight the areas we need to see significant and immediate improvements. The practice has already submitted an action plan detailing how they intend to improve.”

Mr Cox said the CQC would monitor the service and take further action if needed.

The CQC said the inspection was mainly carried out because the practice was a newly registered service following the merger of Crawley Down Health Centre, Judges Close Surgery, Park View Health Partnership and Ship Street Surgery. The CQC's report is at cqc.org.uk.

Modality Mid Sussex said it is committed to enhancing its services to provide the highest quality care. It said that over the next six months it would focus on transforming the practice to meet the standards in the CQC report.

Dr Sharon Pruden, senior partner at Modality Mid Sussex said: “We take the findings of the CQC report very seriously and have been working with our team, addressing each of the recommendations, to make improvements and provide patients with good quality care. We have an improvement plan in place, and we are already making progress in key areas such as numbers of appointments offered and recruitment.”

She said the CQC ‘acknowledged the positive way in which our staff communicate with patients and a culture to drive improvement’ and added that staff worked ‘with true integrity and professionalism’ throughout the pandemic.

Dr Pruden said: “We are confident that the improvements underway will have a positive impact on patient experience and areas highlighted will be rectified as soon as possible.”

Amy Galea, chief primary care officer at NHS Sussex, said: “We have been working with the team at Modality Mid Sussex for several months to understand the areas of improvement that were raised by patients earlier this year and to support the measures the practice team identified to address them.”

People with concerns can contact Lois Brown at [email protected].