A MEDICAL centre which provides services to more than 10,000 people has been criticised in an inspection report. 

Theale Medical Centre was subject to a short notice inspection in March. 

Although the service was rated 'good' in the 'effective' 'caring' and 'responsive' categories, it was rated 'requires improvement' overall. 

The inspection was carried out because of 'information' received by the CQC regarding patient care. 

Inspectors found that errors were recorded effectively, staff were given training and controlled drugs were stored and destroyed responsibly. 

They found that when things went wrong, 'patients were informed of the incident as soon as reasonably practicable, received reasonable support, truthful information, a written apology and were told about any actions to improve processes to prevent the same thing happening again. '

However, inspectors said the centre needs to improve its safety and leadership, and gave it an overall rating of 'requires improvement.'

They have said that the centre must carry out the following improvements: 

• The provider must ensure governance processes and systems are consistently applied in a timely manner to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided and in the management of risk.

This includes ensuring that:

• All staff are aware of policies and procedures and are effectively embedded in practice. For example, not all staff were aware of the whistleblowing policy and how to access it.

• Governance arrangements include all necessary employment checks; training needs are met for all staff; dispensary governance processes identify risks and keep patients safe.

• The complaints management processes include documenting and responding to all verbal complaints in a timely way. Learning and trends from complaints must be shared with all staff.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure all actions from the infection control audit have been documented.

• Continue to review the learning disability register and offer health checks to improve outcomes for this patient group. 

Attempts have been made to contact the surgery.

More to follow.