Loughborough sports treatment centre put in special measures

The centre is one of six run by the EIS

An elite sports therapy and performance centre has been put in special measures after being rated as inadequate by inspectors.

The English Institute of Sport's (EIS) centre in Loughborough offers diagnostic and screening services.

A Care Quality Commision (CQC) review found a lack of oversight from management, poor infection control procedures and staff training issues.

It did however report staff dealt with athletes with kindness and respect.

'Improvement needed'

The EIS has six centres around the country offering a wide range of services, and works with Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

The Loughborough centre has sports and exercise doctors, physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches and a nutritionist, along with administrative support.

The service was rated inadequate in the categories of whether services were safe and whether they were well-led.

The category of effective services was rated as requires improvement, while caring and responsive categories were both rated as good.

Training issues

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors said : "The service did not have clear systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.

"The service had safety policies, however these were not always being followed within the location".

They also found there was no process in place for infection control, with no staff training in this area and staff had not received infection control training.

The report said there was also a lack of comprehensive risk assessments in relation to safety issues.

"There was a lack of oversight from management within the service," inspectors said.

"Managers were not able to demonstrate they had oversight of requirements within the service.

"We saw evidence of regulated activities being carried out for which the provider was not registered."

Additionally they found policies and procedures were not followed and there were "no clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management".

The CQC said it would carry out another inspection in six months and take further action if no improvements had been made.

The EIS said: "We choose to have our clinical services inspected by the CQC because we trust their record in assessing those services and holding us an organisation to the highest standard.

"We want the athletes using our services to feel safe and cared for, and we are always looking to improve what we offer.

"We have full confidence in our EIS people at Loughborough, and we will work with them to implement the CQC's recommendations and improvements ahead of the follow-up inspection in six months' time."