Kempston GP surgery put in special measures

The CQC found that some staff said they had had no safeguarding training

An NHS doctor's surgery has been put in special measures after a catalogue of failures were discovered.

Cater Street Surgery in Kempston, near Bedford, was criticised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for making staff do jobs they were unqualified for and communication gaps around vulnerable patients.

The service was rated inadequate in four out of five areas examined by CQC inspectors in November.

In 2017 the service was rated as good.

Many of the failures identified by the CQC related to administrative tasks not being followed through by management.

Nurses at the surgery, which serves 4,000 patients, reported being asked to offer mental health support and diabetes care, which they were not trained for and which was "outside their sphere of confidence".

There was also evidence that there were gaps in communication between the surgery and community care providers like Macmillan and district nurses, meaning the surgery did not always have co-ordinated care for "complex and vulnerable" patients.

Inspectors also reported medication being prescribed without appropriate blood tests in some cases.

Safeguarding concerns

Risk assessments for legionella and fire safety had not been done and the risk of inefficient care because of a reliance on locums had also not been completed, said the CQC.

Safeguarding issues were also raised after inspectors discovered there was a three-month "backlog" of new patient files and "the practice was unable to provide assurance that there was no safeguarding information" in the notes.

Two members of staff reported having no safeguarding training at all and reception staff had not been trained to notice "red flag sepsis symptoms" in patients.

Staff also said they did not think their well-being was a concern for management and as a result they did not feel they could raise concerns.

Cater Street Surgery has been contacted by the BBC for comment.