Health firm that runs all of North Kirklees' GP practices "requires improvement"

Curo Health manage the 27 GP practices in North Kirklees. Inspectors from the CQC highlighted a number of issues with the health firm during a pre-planned visit on November 14. The investigation focused on the 'Extended Access Service', which includes the weekend and out of hours late night services.

The report was published on December 17 and stated that Curo Health needed to improve the safety, effectiveness and how well-led their services were.

The health watch-dog said that the caring and responsiveness of the service was good.

There were "gaps in relation to health and safety" at the Dewsbury Health Centre, Liversedge Health Centre and Broughton House in Batley.

These gaps included fire and infection prevention, as well as concerns regarding the lack of a secure door entry system, which meant staff could not control who entered and left the premises.

The report revealed that some of the staff responsible for chaperone duties had not been DBS checked, and that the "service did not have fully developed safety systems."

Access to blank prescription books and controls to prevent prescriptions going missing, were noted as other areas of risk.

Dr Adnan Jabbar, Chair and Medical Director of Curo Health Limited said: "The service was rated overall as ‘Requires Improvement’. Curo Health fully accepts the overall rating and we would like to express how pleased we are that two of the five measures were rated as ‘Good’.

"Importantly, we would also like to outline that this independent review of the Extended Access Service has provided insight into where we can further improve our service. We are delighted that the inspection report outlines the consistent references to staff who the inspectors describe as committed, caring and compassionate.

"Patient feedback is reviewed regularly through the service, and was collected by the Care Quality Commission. This outlined positive results on patient experience.

"The report has highlighted some areas for improvement, of which we are working hard to address, and we know that we can always learn and improve our service further.

"An action plan has been submitted to the CQC and we will be working with our partner organisations to ensure that our service is safe, caring and effective now, and in the future.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff for their continued commitment to delivering this responsive service and to also thank our local community, North Kirklees, for supporting our services so strongly."